His name is his mistake: Cong on Ashoka University teacher’s arrest

Saying “his name is his mistake”, the Congress on Monday targeted the BJP government over the arrest of Ashoka University associate professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad over his social media post about ‘Operation Sindoor’.

The Haryana police arrested Mahmudabad, who teaches political science at Ashoka University, from his Delhi residence on May 18. The academic was later sent to a two-day remand on the basis of a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, the general secretary of the BJP’s Yuva Morcha in Haryana.

Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera said, “His only mistake is that he wrote this post. His other mistake is his name. This is the state of new India under the Modi government.”

The academic was arrested for a thoughtful post against violence, while the BJP ministers face no action for demeaning the armed forces. This brings to the fore the “double standards” of the Modi government, Khera said.

Extending support to the academic, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said, “The arrest of Ashoka University professor, Ali Khan Mahmudabad, shows how fearful the BJP is of any opinion, disliked by them. This follows a chain reaction that began from targeting the grieving widow of our martyred Naval officer, our foreign secretary and his daughter, and the deplorable comments for a serving Colonel in the Indian Army by a BJP Minister.”

“Instead of sacking their own minister in MP, who made disgusting statements against our valiant Armed Forces, the BJP is hell bent on casting a narrative that anybody, who represents pluralism, questions the government or simply performs his professional duty in the service of the nation, is a threat to its existence,” he added.

Khera pointed out that the arrested academic was the grandson of a Padma Bhushan, late Jagat S Mehta, who served as India’s Foreign Secretary from 1976-79, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the External Affairs Minister.

Mahmudabad is the son of Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, popularly known as Raja Sahab Mahmudabad, who spent about forty years in a legal battle to reclaim his ancestral property that was seized by the government under the Enemy Properties Act. Mohammad Khan passed away in October 2023, Khera added.

Mahmudabad’s father was the only son of Mohammad Amir Ahmad Khan, the last ruling Raja of Mahmudabad and long-time treasurer and major financier of the Muslim League before partition of India, Khera stated.

India