Mahesh Jethmalani@JethmalaniM
Never forget how India’s so called 'liberal ecosystem' defended Tahir Hussain.
When Intelligence Bureau officer Ankit Sharma was murdered during the Delhi riots in 2020 and his body was recovered from a drain, the ecosystem did not stand with Ankit’s family.
It rushed to manufacture victimhood for the accused.
The likes of Rana Ayyub declared that Tahir had been arrested merely “because he’s a Hussain.” Others portrayed him as an innocent Muslim being framed by a vindictive Hindu-majoritarian state. Every uncomfortable fact was dismissed as propaganda. Every demand for justice was labelled communal.
Today, a Delhi court - not the BJP, not television anchors, not “WhatsApp University” - has convicted former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain of murder, kidnapping, promoting enmity and rioting in the killing of Ankit Sharma.
The mask has fallen.
For this ecosystem, the presumption of innocence is sacred when the accused suits its politics. But a murdered Hindu becomes an inconvenient footnote, his family’s grief erased because acknowledging his killers would destroy their preferred narrative of the Delhi riots.
They did not merely get the story wrong.
They attempted to reverse the roles of victim and perpetrator to turn a convicted murderer into a symbol of persecution and bury Ankit Sharma twice: once in a drain, and again beneath their propaganda.
Never forget the crime.
And never forget those who defended the criminal.
