UAE books 3 more Indians on charges of spreading hate

Dubai monitoring posts that can inflame communal tensions

04/05/2020, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,NEW DELHI

The authorities in the UAE over the weekend booked three more Indians for spreading hate online. Diplomatic sources said this was part of the Gulf country’s campaign to monitor community activities by Indian expats as intense social media exchanges between Indian and Gulf commentators continue.

The latest to be booked are Rohit Rawat, a chef employed with a high-end Italian restaurant, Sachin Kinnigoli, a storekeeper, and an employee with the Transguard group who posted offensive messages in a Facebook page under a fictitious name, Vishal Thakur. All three have been terminated from their positions, and the administration of Dubai is acting against them under the law.

Sources from the UAE said the country was unlikely to tolerate online hate and was monitoring both online and offline activities by expats, especially comments that inflamed religious sentiments. An offender will get jail term and be fined heavily depending on the scale of the crime. Since early March, there have been at least 11 cases of Indian expats getting sacked and punished for such crimes.

Continued online hate speech and crackdown by the authorities have drawn the attention of Indian Ambassador Pavan Kapoor, who had intervened earlier reminding Indians that discrimination is against the rule of law and the “moral fabric” of India. Nevertheless, heated exchanges continued, prompting Princess Hend Al Qassemi of Sharjah to criticise dominant political trends in India.

It is learnt that the UAE has begun to watch out for signs of extremism among Hindus, including social and cultural figures, in a focused way after a prominent Indian priest was arrested in March 2019. After a brief detention, Mahant Sudhir Das Pujari was released and allowed to return home. The Mahant said the controversy was related to a dispute with his Arab business partner, and it had nothing to do with his religious activities.