Since long there have been reports about how Twitter accounts were getting suspended for attacking a particular ideology and a political party whose leader routinely attacks the PM by using words like Coward and Psychopath and journalists by calling them ‘dalaal’ (pimp).
As reported, many prominent Twitter handles soon got suspended after questioning or mocking AAP and one of the latest additions to the suspended list, Sonam Mahajan (@AsYouNotWish) too claims to have fallen prey to the same design.
Sonam Mahajan, who also has a Facebook page, claimed that she knew such a fate was inevitable after she had been routinely asking uncomfortable questions to Kejriwal and that the suspension was at the personal behest of Kejriwal, who was assisted in this regard by Raheel Khursheed a top executive at Twitter India.
She also claimed that the suspension closely followed her tweet about Dangal actress Zaria Wasim’s mother who had posted a “Keep calm and defeat India” poster with a Pakistani flag on Facebook.
As a result of such a blatant stifling of someone’s freedom of expression, many came in support of Sonam Mahajan.
https://twitter.com/Ra_Bies/status/829676395974365184
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/829718326339178497
Some celebrities too came out in her support
https://twitter.com/TandonRaveena/status/829764836154150912
https://twitter.com/imbhandarkar/status/829788586941755392
Many pointed out how the real abusers who should be the ones suspended were running free
https://twitter.com/mepratap/status/829740165606187008
Soon the hashtag #BringBackSonamMahajan was the number one trend in India:
While Sonam Mahajan thanked all the commoners for standing up for her during this time, she lamented the fact that not even a single politician among those who she had defended countless times was coming to her aid during her time of need.
While it remains to be seen if and when her Twitter account gets restored, the fact remains that many who claim to be the champions of free speech are now silent, some being even an accessory to stifling of voices that go against the established norm.