By Tarafdar Zaman
Human right activist Sharjeel Usmani was picked by Uttar Pradesh police from his Azamgarh home on Wednesday evening. His brother said that around 5 pm, five unknown people dressed in plain clothes and claiming to be from the Crime Branch picked up Sharjeel. When they were asked who they are, they said, “You don’t need to know why we are here, Sharjeel knows why we are here. They pointed to Sharjeel, whose hand was tied. Sharjeel Usmani had already been arrested when he had gone out for a walk to drink tea.”
The crime branch entered Sharjeel’s house and seized his laptop and books.
“I refuse to believe it is an arrest. They did not tell us what charges were being pressed. They did not allow us to have any conversation with him”, said Sharjeel’s father, Tariq Usmani.
“As a parent, and more importantly, as citizens, we have the right to know,” said Sharjeel’s mother.
It has become a trend that whenever a Muslim youth is picked up by police, the social media starts to celebrate it without going into the details of the reasons for the arrest.
The elite media have portrayed Muslims of India as a community whose love and patriotism for their country is under doubt. The majoritarianism in the country has already established that just because someone is a Muslim, it means he must have done something wrong. This happened in the case of Tableeqe Jamat incident when media cashed the sentiments and Islamophobic psychology of masses and portrayed Jamaatis as deliberately spreading coronavirus, which was not only wrong but also dangerous and vile.
When Muslim youth are picked on terror charges, the majority community makes its mind against them without even hearing the court hearings and judgments.
The elite media started running kangaroo courts but in the present times, mini versions of these kangaroo courts are now running on Twitter and Facebook. On social media, every second user is declaring Muslims as anti-national, without even knowing the full background of the story.
In the case of Sharjeel Usmani, we saw the same trend. While no one knows who took Sharjeel, but on social media, he was already declared anti-national.
There could be many possibilities behind his arrest. One of them can be that he was picked by someone who has personal enmity with him but why will social media’s Islamophobic mass even try to think from that angle.
Sharjeel Usmani, who has 24.5 thousand followers on his Twitter, started trending on social media after his arrest.
The moment news broke out on Twitter that anti-CAA-NRC activist Sharjeel Usmani was picked by some unknown people who claimed to be from the crime branch – there were mixed reactions on social media to this news. While many were still not sure and raised doubts that Sharjeel was not arrested, there is a possibility that he was kidnapped.
On the other hand, there were many who were celebrating his sudden disappearance.
Many Facebook users without knowing who picked up Sharjeel Usmani, was he kidnapped or was he arrested by the crime branch and what charges were brought against him and without going into the background and having knowledge of the case, simply started rejoicing his disappearance.
When one does not know who picked him up from his house, and on what charges, how can they reach to a conclusion that Sharjeel was criminal and started celebrating his arrest on Twitter?
This is a clear case of inference-observation confusion which is a form of Cognitive Distortion Disorder, which is a psychological term referring to an attitude where one “judges or decides something without having all the facts and reaches unwarranted conclusions.”
Cognitive distortions are thoughts that cause individuals to perceive reality inaccurately.
Negative thinking patterns reinforce negative emotions and thoughts. During difficult circumstances, these distorted thoughts can contribute to an overall negative outlook on the world and a depressive or anxious mental state.
This inference-observation confusion (IOC) is now the psychology of the majority of the population in India. They simply declare Muslims and anti-CAA-NRC protesters as criminal and anti-national, without finding the facts about each case. These are clear symptoms of an Islamophobic mindset.
Sharjeel Usmani was very vocal about Muslim identity issues and was an important voice against CAA and NRC on Twitter.
At this point in time, not many influential voices are left on Twitter who are highlighting CAA-NRC and “Muslim identity” issues. There is persistent targeting of these critical voices by the right-wing IT Cell and many unknown right-wing trolls, who issue warnings and threats like inflicting serious injury or rape. With the recent arrest of anti-CAA-NRC activists under draconian laws like UAPA, activists on Twitter are avoiding raising their voice for fear of reprisals.
Sharjeel Usmani meanwhile did not bother about his opponents who wanted him to change his narrative. He was a vocal critic of the targeting of anti-CAA-NRC activists and students including Sharjeel Imam, Safoora Zargar, Umar Khalid, Aasif Iqbal Tanha, Chandrashekhar Ravan and Meeran Haider, who had been arrested under various acts such as NSA, UAPA, Goonda Act, and Sedition (IPC 124A).
While journalism is considered the fourth pillar of democracy, Twitter and other social media platforms are decentralized forms of media where the power of expressing one’s viewpoint is at the easy reach of the common man. This makes Twitter and Facebook as true platforms for journalism in the time of Godi media.
While the witch hunt of anti-CAA-NRC protesters continues on social media, the question is will this not be considered as the attack on the fourth pillar of democracy
Tarafdar Zaman is a Psychologist and a freelance journalist, who mostly writes on Art, Culture and Muslim issues.