‘If Mohammed Zubair, why not Arun Yadav?’ BJP sacks Haryana IT cell head over 2017 tweet after social media backlash
The Haryana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday sacked its IT cell head Arun Yadav over a tweet dating back to 2017, amid an ongoing row over Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, after calls for his arrest started trending on Twitter and other social media platforms.
The party’s decision for the “immediate” removal of Yadav as the state IT cell in charge was announced by Haryana party secretary Gulshan Bhatia citing no reasons.
After a sustained campaign on social media calling for Yadav’s arrest regarding his old tweet that went viral, the party was forced to act, a BJP leader told The Indian Express. “With over 85,000 tweets seeking his arrest, it has become a big issue,” the party leader was quoted as saying to IE.
Although no formal complaint has been lodged at any police station, netizens tagged the Haryana and Delhi police, arguing that if Zubair could be held over a 2018 tweet for hurting religious sentiments, then why were the same standards not applicable to Yadav for allegedly tweeting against Islam.
Yadav has been on Twitter since August 2015 and has over six lakh followers. With nearly 30,000 tweets, Yadav mainly tweets on the several policies, decisions, and schemes of the BJP government. #ArrestArunYadav has been trending for the last two days with over 186,000 tweets.
