On Wednesday, defence analyst Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, known for his polemic style on Twitter earned the wrath of several Twitter users for remarks at Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
Mohammed Zubair, who uses the Twitter handle Zoo Bear, had put a video of a doctor abusing members of the Tableeghi Jamat and written: “Dr. Aarti Lalchandani refers COVID +ve Muslims as terrorists, Wants govt to send Jamatis to Jungle & Jail instead of exhausting resources. She is the same lady who'd earlier alleged that Jamatis were spitting, misbehaving & demanding Biryani.”
This led Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, who’s a defence strategist associated with ORF and IPCS, New Delhi to lash out at Zubair and say: “Tell you what Jihadi Jabbar, if you agree I'll come to your house, flash your mum, spit on her, piss in your living room and demand pork vindaloo for three months. Let's see if your mum sends me to jail/jungle or keeps feeding me biryani and wasting expensive test kits and beds on me. Ok?”
Several Twitter users including journalists asked Twitter to drop his blue tick and the organisations that are associated with him to drop him. There were also calls asking Shekhar Gupta, the founder of the Print to drop Abhijit Iyer-Mitra’s columns.
Pratik Sinha, Alt News Co-founder asked several media organisations including India Today and The Print to disassociate themselves from Iyer-Mitra.
43 days in jail
Iyer-Mitra is known for his caustic comments and spent 43 days in jail for ‘insulting Odia sentiments and traditions’. He was put behind bars on October 23, 2018.
He later apologised unreservedly and had said: “In addition to my apology to the Odisha assembly, I have unreservedly and unconditionally apologized for my words and actions that may have unintentionally hurt the sentiments of the people of Odisha, the Chief Minister and any others.”
Defamation suit against NDTV
Earlier, Mitra had filed a defamation suit against NDTV journalist Gargi Rawat and advocate Dushyant Arora for allegedly liking a tweet calling him a 'rapist'.
Incidentally, Shekhar Gupta is also the President of the Editor’s Guild of India.
