Sharjeel Imam is important in the scheme of things because it was him who masterminded the anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests and making the state machin… - Nupur J. Sharma

AltNews was not the only digital media outlet that came to the defense of Tahir Hussain. The Wire provided its platform to the AAP leader to declare his innocence and engage in further victim-mongering. In a video clip shared by The Wire on social media, Tahir Hussain can be heard saying that he should not be targeted for his Muslim identity. Engaging in such problematic rhetoric when several serious allegations have been leveled against Tahir Hussain by eyewitnesses and the family of a deceased Intelligence Bureau constable is irresponsible behaviour on the part of a media outlet, to put it mildly. However, it’s consistent with how the media has conducted itself in the entire matter.

Sharjeel Imam’s rise to notoriety was driven by a speech he made that went viral on social media. In the said video, he had urged Muslims to cut off North East India from the rest of the country by blocking the Chicken’s Neck. The Chicken’s Neck is a narrow stretch of land of about 22 kilometers located in West Bengal, that connects the northeastern states to the rest of India, with Nepal and Bangladesh lying on either side of the corridor.. The stretch of land is extremely important for Indian national security reasons and considering Sharjeel Imam’s educational qualifications, it is plainly obvious that he was fully aware of the implications of his words. Sharjeel Imam says in the viral video, “If five lakh Muslims are organized then we can cut off the North-east from the rest of India. If we cannot do so permanently, then at least we can do it for months. Our responsibility is to cut Assam from India, only then will the Government hear our voice. If we have to help Assam then we will have to cut Assam from the rest of India.” The worldview of Sharjeel Imam was made obvious from the posts he made on Facebook and the column he penned for far-left media outlet The Wire, which is known to spread fake news.

Harsh Mander has served in the National Advisory Council (NAC), an advisory body set up by the first United Progressive Alliance government to advise the Prime Minister of India, with Sonia Gandhi as its chairperson. The body was widely regarded by Indian citizens and then opposition political parties as unconstitutional. The body comprised people from civil society organizations of questionable repute. The NAC faced the harshest criticism for its draft of the Communal Violence Bill. The Bill, officially referred to as the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, promulgated that Hindus ought to be considered the presumptive guilty party in the case of any communal riots. It assumed that only religious or linguistic minorities and people from the Scheduled Castes and Tribes could be the victims of communal violence conveniently ignoring all ground realities.