From Assam to Haryana, arbitrary arrests of social media users make a mockery of the Constitution

It has been just over three weeks since the Indian Army launched Operation Sindoor as a response to the terror attack in Pahalgam that left 26 people dead. Since then, the military action has been used as a cover to crack down on social media users across the spectrum.

In Assam, 81 “anti-nationals” have been arrested for “sympathising” with Pakistan, the chief minister said on Sunday. Arrests in the wake of the military action have also been reported from Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Tripura, Haryana and Maharashtra, though an exact number is not known.

The case that garnered the most attention was the arrest on May 18 of Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad. In a Facebook post, he pointed to the irony of Hindutva commentators praising Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, who had represented the Army during media briefings, even as they ignored the mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing of homes and other hate crimes against Indian Muslims.

When the Supreme Court granted Mahmudabad interim bail on May 21, Justice Surya Kant declared that the professor should have used “neutral language” rather than using words with “dual meaning”.

On Friday, the Kolkata police travelled to Gurugram to arrest 22-year-old Sharmishtha Panoli, an Instagram influencer and law student, for a video posted on social...

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