The hunt looks likely to continue
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All humane people were heartbroken to view the images of a teacher in UP Muzaffarnagar making her students slap their classmate with racial hatred. The Uttar Pradesh police, who have been reluctant to file a case against the person who violated all child justice and human rights to the extent that she does not even deserve to be called a teacher, has promptly filed a case against Muhammad Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking website 'Alt News'. The alleged crime against Zubair is that he shared the video of the inhumane incident on the social media platform 'X' (formerly Twitter) identifying the student who was beaten up. A case was registered against him under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act. The teacher who instructed the students to slap their classmate's face on the other hand said that she was not ashamed of what she had done. Locals and people's representatives, including members of Parliament, have come forward in support of her who justified the beating of the student by his classmates. At the time of the video controversy, the education department had announced some action against the teacher and the school, but now the school has been given a full month's time to explain what happened. A case was registered against the teacher on weak charges.
Zubair is neither the first nor the second person to share this video. The video, which is said to have been taken by the student's relative, has already been shared by many people. News of the incident along with this video was shared on the social media pages of many media outlets. It was also aired by some mainstream media. Finally, the video was withdrawn from social media after the National Commission for Child Rights requested that it not be shared. Zubair also immediately took down the video. However, a case has been filed only against him. The administration continues to demonstrate that in the new India, criticising hatred is the crime rather than actually committing it. There is no reason to believe that those who attempt to suppress dissenting opinions will eventually give up. Past actions prove that. There is no doubt that the hunt for only Zubair is a continuation of the government's agenda of singling out critics and dissenters. For years, he has been the marked target of the Sangh Parivar and the administration they control. The Sangh Parivar's main aim is to spread hatred. This case once again illustrates how much the government, which pretends to be very powerful, is afraid of this journalist.
It has to be remembered that Zubair had been arrested in 2022 after a case was filed against him in 2020 for a tweet he posted in 2018 with a scene from a movie released decades ago. He was called in for an investigation in connection with another case and was arrested even though the High Court had already granted him protection against arrest. The Supreme Court ultimately saved the day. After combining all of the FIRs, the Supreme Court granted Zubair bail. The cases were transferred to the Delhi court. The UP government's request that Zubair be prohibited from tweeting moving forward, as instructed by the lower court, was also rejected by the Supreme Court. The apex court pointed out that a journalist cannot be told not to write. The poor situation of Indian journalism and media has now been brought to light by the World Press Freedom Index in which India is now ranked 161st out of 180 nations. The trend in recent years has seen India repeatedly going down in the list. The fact that those who expose fake news and write news that the government disapproves of, are unable to conduct their jobs without being threatened proves that democracy is in serious danger. What is even more unfortunate is that India is witnessing a tragic scenario where the media community, which needs to find a united way to overcome this situation, is competing to how before the powers that be.
