‘When writers, professors are branded enemy…’: Congress, SP back Ashoka University faculty Ali Khan Mahmudabad

Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s arrest over a post on Operation Sindoor has drawn sharp criticism from both the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Congress leader Pawan Khera, in a long post, criticised the academic's arrest for a “thoughtful” post against violence as he highlighted that some BJP ministers have faced no action for “demeaning” the armed forces, terming it as the ruling government's “double standards”.

Pawan Khera said when “writers, professors and critics are branded enemies, the real enemy is democracy itself.”

“His only mistake is that he wrote this post. His other mistake is his name,” Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera said, “This is the state of New India under the Modi government”.

Ali Khan Mahmudabad’s arrest on Sunday, May 18, came after two FIRs accused him of grave offences, including threatening the country’s sovereignty, over posts related to Operation Sindoor.

“A historian and academic is jailed not for inciting violence but for advocating against it. His crime? Daring to speak truth to power, exposing the BJP’s cynical communal narrative, and calling out the hypocrisy of chest-thumping nationalism. Meanwhile, the BJP minister and their deputy CM face no action after openly demeaning the armed forces. No FIRs. No arrests. That’s the double standard of Modi’s governance.”

“This is not about one man. It is about the slow suffocation of freedom of speech, the criminalisation of dissent, and the use of state machinery to silence intellectuals who challenge the BJP’s manufactured rage,” Pawan Khera said.

‘Ali Khan grandson of Padma Bhushan awardee’

The Congress leader also pointed out that Ali Khan Mahmudabad is the grandson of the late Jagat S Mehta, a Padma Bhushan awardee who served as India’s Foreign Secretary from 1976 to 1979, during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tenure as External Affairs Minister.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, too, has criticised Ali Khan Mahmudabad's arrest. In a post, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Hukmaraanon kee badazubaanee par bhee aazaadee, aur kisee kee sach kahane par giraftaaree [Rough translation: Freedom even when rulers speak foul language, And arrest of someone for speaking the truth]”