The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday slammed Opposition parties for protesting against the arrest of activist Teesta Setalvad, and co-founder of the fact-checking portal Alt News, Mohammed Zubair, alleging that they were working as part of a "poisonous ecosystem" where one offender protects another if anyone is caught.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP's national headquarters in New Delhi, party spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia accused Opposition parties of supporting and opposing judicial actions as per their convenience and asked whether they had any faith in the judiciary or not.
He characterised the Gujarat Police's action against Ms. Setalvad following the Supreme Court's strong denunciation of her and others for "keeping the pot boiling" and levelling false charges, including against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over the 2002 riots in the State. "[Teesta] Setalvad was a small branch for fanning communal hate. Its headquarter was in the Congress and its president Sonia Gandhi was the chief executive officer," he told a press conference.
To questions over Mr. Zubair's arrest and the Opposition leaders' protest against it, he said one cannot become a fact-checker only by proclaiming himself to be one. Mr. Zubair had a chequered past and had posted tweets that had hurt the religious feelings of a large section of Hindu society, Mr. Bhatia said.
All major Opposition parties and media organisations condemned Mr. Zubair's arrest on Monday by the Delhi Police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments with one of his tweets. Criticising Mr. Zubair, Mr. Bhatia said that if somebody was fact-checking, then he could not be selective. If he posted content that suited some political party or a community, then he was not objective, Mr. Bhatia claimed. "If protest against Zubair's arrest is linked with similar criticism of action against Setalvad, then it is clear that there is a poisonous ecosystem," he said.
The Editors Guild of India on Tuesday termed Mr. Zubair’s arrest “extremely disturbing” and demanded his immediate release. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that every person exposing the BJP’s “hate, bigotry and lies” was a threat to them. “Arresting one voice of truth will only give rise to a thousand more. Truth always triumphs over tyranny,” Mr. Gandhi said in a tweet.
