Activist and former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Umar Khalid was arrested late on Sunday night by the Delhi Police's Special Cell under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for his alleged role in the Northeast Delhi riots.
On Monday, he was produced in a Delhi court via video-conferencing. Khalid was sent to 10 days police custody after Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad said that the activist had to be confronted with huge technical data running into 11 lakh pages, "as well as other evidence collected during investigation of present case and also to examine at length about other suspects and various other aspects".
Meanwhile, Twitterati drew parallels with the data available against Umar Khalid and the government having absolutely no data on the migrant deaths which took place during the lockdown enforced due to COVID-19 pandemic.
To the uninitiated, Union minister Santosh Gangwar on Monday told the Lok Sabha that the government does not have data regarding the number of migrants who died or were injured during migration to their native places due to the lockdown. "No such data is available," the Labour Minister said in a written reply.
The response was to BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab's question on the "the number of such labourers died/ injured during migration to their native places due to such lockdown, State/ UT-wise".
Twitterati panned the government for their "priorities". "11 Lakh (1.1M) pages of data for Umar Khalid. No data for migrant's death during pandemic. Priorities of Indian govt," a Twitter user said. "These geniuses tell Parliament they don't know how many migrant labourers died because of the lockdown - but know exactly how many COVID deaths were prevented by lockdown," said another Twitter user.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
