Tazeen Junaid

It has been 1078 days since the movement against CAA began in India; it has been 1000 days since Sharjeel Imam has been in prison. When I last penned about Imam, Umar Khalid had just been arrested. There was a ruthless and oppressive lack of solidarity for Imam and an outpouring of the same for Khalid thereby, foregrounding the conceptualization of a “conventional Muslim prisoner”, how Khalid fits it and Imam does not because the first cloaked his Muslim identity and the latter wielded it.

“At no time have governments been moralists. They never imprisoned people and executed them for having done something. They imprisoned and executed them to keep them from doing something. They imprisoned all those prisoners of war, of course, not for treason to the motherland […] They imprisoned all of them to keep them from telling their fellow villagers about Europe.

It has been one month since the 27 of May when Times Now organized a debate on the Gyanvapi mosque dispute. The debate, telecasted in the prime time slot of the Newshour Debate show, was hosted by Navika Kumar and in line with the typical format of most prime time news shows, resembled a shouting match. Stereotypical panellists including BJP (Bharatiya Janta Party) representative Nupur Sharma attended it.