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WHO IS SHARJEEL IMAM?
- Born and brought up in the Jehanabad district of Bihar, Sharjeel Imam’s childhood was spent amid books — oscillating between history and computer science at his missionary school in Patna.
- Imam completed his schooling in 2006, and cleared the JEE entrance exam in the first attempt. He secured a spot in the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, for a B.Tech in computer science.Imam has previously written about how he was the sole Muslim in a class of 200 undergraduates.
WHO IS SHARJEEL IMAM?
- After graduation, Sharjeel Imam joined a software company in Bengaluru and spent 2 years there.
- “At his job, he had the opportunity to go to Europe multiple times. We told him to stick to his comfortable life, now that his job had even opened doors of European countries,” said Arman.”
- However, disgruntled at the lack of Muslim representation in his college education as well as corporate setup, Imam made up his mind about quitting his job and switching to a life in social sciences.
WHO IS SHARJEEL IMAM?
- His father Akbar Imam, too, had worked as a social worker and was closely affiliated with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).
- Akbar unsuccessfully contested as JD(U)’s candidate from the Jehanabad constituency in the 2005 assembly elections. He died in 2014 after battling cancer for several years.
- Imam turned to Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2013 in the hope of a more egalitarian environment, but the institution too left him disappointed.
JNU
- After Sharjeel Imam took admission in JNU as an MA student due to its “reputation as the fort of secularism and struggles against oppressive forces”, he was immediately impressed by the Left forces in the campus.
- Imam joined the All India Students Association (AISA) — the student wing of the CPI(ML). In 2015, he even contested for the JNU Student Union’s elections for the post of the councillor as AISA’s candidate.
- But around this time, Imam began perceiving how Islamophobia was “rampant in the progressive’ campus”.
WHY HE IS IN NEWS?
- Imam has written multiple articles calling out liberals for their Islamophobia. He had also hit out at many liberals for supporting Kanhaiya Kumar over RJD’s Begusarai candidate Tanvir Hasan.
- Now, as Sharjeel Imam gets embroiled in a controversy over his allegedly seditious speech, his friend said his approach to protest has always been about getting the government’s attention.
- Imam was one of the initial organisers of the Shaheen Bagh protests but called it off on 4 January to “avoid politicisation of the stage by parties”.
ARRESTED
- The protests continued nonetheless, with women protestors taking charge. On 25 January, after the political row over his speech, Shaheen Bagh protestors issued a statement distancing themselves from Imam’s remarks and said the protest has “no sole organiser”.
- Sharjeel Imam, an activist, has been booked under several cases for allegedly delivering inflammatory speeches against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
- A case of sedition has been lodged against him, following his speech at Aligarh Muslim University and other places.
ARRESTED
- He was arrested from his hometown Jehanabad in Bihar on January 28. He was heard ‘instigating people’ to cut Assam off India. The Assam police have filed an FIR under anti-terror law for his ‘hate speech.’ The Delhi court has sent Imam to 5-days of police custody.
- The Delhi Police Crime Branch and special cell officers believe that Sharjeel Imam didn’t give the speech in the heat of the moment — rather, it was part of a wellplanned strategy.
- He had gone to Phulwarisharif near Patna to participate in another anti-CAA/NRC protest. Sharjeel went underground from Patna, where he came to know about the sedition charges in the FIR registered against him in connection with his AMU speech.
FIR
- An FIR was registered against Imam by the Delhi Police on January 25 under IPC sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting or attempting to promote disharmony or feelings of enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever) among others.
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