Sedition frenzy: How the media painted atheist and communist Umar Khalid as an Islamist

Ever since the news of allegedly anti-national slogans being shouted at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus broke on Friday, the media has been dominated by Kanhaiya Kumar, the president of the institution’s students’ union, who is now under arrest for sedition. Five days into the frenzy sparked by this case, the Modi government, it seems, has decided to change tack and go soft on Kumar. On Wednesday, Delhi Police Commissioner, BS Bassi announced that Kumar’s bail plea would not be opposed.

Playing a parallel tune, however, sections of the media ­­– based on shadowy, unnamed sources – have also been targeting Umar Khalid, another JNU student and one of the alleged organisers of the event at which the purportedly anti-national slogans were shouted. Khalid, however, faces an even graver charge than sedition: he has been said to have links with Islamist terror groups. This is despite the fact that Khalid has described himself as an atheist sympathiser of far left communism, making his involvement with religious fundamentalism a highly improbable matter.

Media frenzy

On its programmes, television news channel NewsX fervently informed its viewers that Umar Khalid was a “Jaish-e-Mohammad sympathiser”. Its only source was an unidentified Intelligence Bureau report. The report omitted to mention what being a “Jaish-e-Mohhamad sympathiser” entailed or how NewsX or the Intelligence Bureau had reached this conclusion. The ominous phrase “Jaish-e-Mohammad sympathiser” was, obviously, a powerful dog whistle.

There was more. ABP News now came up with another even more damaging and equally unsubstantiated dog whistle accusation. “Umar Khalid’s group had tried to create a furore by sticking naked pictures of Hindu gods and goddesses,” the ABP website reported.

Again, like NewsX, ABP quoted a shadowy report, this time by the Delhi Police. How the Delhi Police came to know of this wasn’t explained. Khalid himself isn’t even blamed but his “group” is. Who or what exactly is “Umar Khalid’s group" is never defined.

Not be left behind, Zee News ran a headline using the word “terrorist” for Khalid.

Far left communist

Attempts to paint Khalid as an Islamist are not only based on rather thin proof, they also hit a wall of logic when considered that he was a far left communist. The Democratic Students Union, of which Khalid was a part, had Maoism as its ideology and was left even by JNU’s own rather radical standards. Khalid has described himself as a “Marxist-Leninist” in writings that are publicly available. On his personal blog, Khalid, as an undergraduate student, had angry articles on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Arundhati Roy, Operation Greenhunt and Barack Obama – all from a leftist perspective.

“Even in the context of JNU, he was far to the left and was heavily involved in student politics,” said Pratik Ali, who studied with Khalid at JNU. It was much the same during his undergraduate days at Kirori Mal College, Delhi University (class of 2009). Confirmed Hany Babu, Associate Professor at the Department of English, Delhi University, "He was always active in left politics during his time as an undergraduate.”

An atheist

Given his ideology as a communist, Khalid was obviously an atheist. Khalid’s lack of religious belief is confirmed by his friends, family and acquaintances. “Khalid was irreligious and wouldn’t pray,” said Joyeeta Dey, a family friend of Khalid’s. “In fact, so firm was Khalid in his lack of belief, that it strained his relations with his family.”

Said Pratik Ali: “Umar had broken away from his family due to his lack of faith. This was something everyone knew at the JNU campus."

No journalistic checks

NewsX even claimed that Khalid had visited Pakistan as proof of his being “in contact with JeM top brass”. Khalid’s father, SQR Ilyas rubbished this charge: “How can Umar have visited Pakistan when he doesn't even have a passport?”

“Umar had PhD offers from US universities, yet he chose to stay back to work for India’s oppressed. This charge of him being anti-national is absurd,” said Ilyas. “Even his JNU PhD thesis is on the issues of adivasis in Jharkhand – that’s how much he cared for India and her people.”

What’s more, Khalid even appeared on television debates on Times Now and Zee News, after the slogan-shouting incident of February 9. That a person was simultaneously in contact with the Jaish-e-Mohammad and openly debating his case on Indian television is a near-absurd scenario.

IB reports debunked

After three days of television channels painting Umar as an Islamist, the Hindu, on Wednesday debunked these reports. “We have not issued any such alert," a top intelligence official told the Hindu. "It is a figment of someone’s imagination. You can always attribute anything to the IB, since we don’t come out in the open to deny or confirm.”

Even this, however, did not stop some news outlets. A report in the Hindi-language India News on Wednesday still accused Khalid of having links with terror groups.

In the end, it seems, the media’s reporting on Umar Khalid was not based on any facts and was simply a witch hunt. In Catch News, Aditya Menon blamed this on Khalid’s “Muslim” name:

Umar suits the BJP’s brief perfectly. He has the right name ­– a name around which various conspiracy theories involving Pakistan-based Jihadi organisations, the Inter-services Intelligence and Kashmiri separatists can be woven, with a few critical keywords like ‘indoctrination’, ‘infiltration’ and ‘ sleeper cells’ thrown in.