‘Dog Whistling’: SC Pulls Up Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, Grants Interim Bail but Probe to Continue

The Supreme Court granted interim bail to Ashoka University’s Associate Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Wednesday. This comes just a day after Mahmudabad, head of the political science department at the Haryana-based university, was sent to 14 days of judicial custody by a district court in Sonepat.

Mahmudabad was arrested by the Delhi Police on Sunday and later handed over to authorities in Sonepat. The case stems from two FIRs registered against him over his controversial remarks on social media after India’s Operation Sindoor against terror outfits in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

What SC said on the Ashoka University Professor case

During the hearing on Wednesday, the Supreme Court bench, comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice NK Singh, pulled up the professor, saying his choice of words in his social media post were “used to humiliate, insult, and put others in discomfort.”

“Although everybody has right to freedom of expression, statements by Mahmudabad are what is called dog whistling in law,” the bench added.

The Supreme Court further ordered that Mahmudabad shall not write any online article or make any speech related to the posts he published on social media, which are now the subject matter of investigation. 
Moreover, the interim bail to the professor would be subjected to furnishing bail bonds to the satisfaction of the district court in Sonepat, and he has also been asked to surrender his passport.

The case against Ashoka University Professor Mahmudabad

Mahmudabad was arrested days after the Haryana State Commission for Women took a suo motu cognizance of his comments on Wing Commander Vyomika Singh and Colonel Sofia Qureshi, both of whom appeared regularly in press briefings, along with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, on Operation Sindoor.

The Ashoka University professor described the initial press briefings as “optics” and “hypocrisy”.

“I am very happy to see so many right-wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophia Qureishi but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJP’s hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens,” he added in a post on Facebook.