On 22 January 2026, leftist rag The Wire published a long article titled “Is Sharjeel Imam Paying the Price of Being Misunderstood?” trying to portray Sharjeel Imam as a saint and scholar and that his words meant nothing wrong.
The problem with the article is that it systematically sanitises the substance of Imam’s speech by collapsing it into the innocuous vocabulary of protest, most notably by repeatedly characterising his call as a “mere chakka jam”.
The piece, titled “Is Sharjeel Imam Paying the Price of Being Misunderstood?”, is a lengthy treatise that leans heavily on emotion, legal technicalities, and a curated portrayal of Imam as a “brilliant scholar” wronged by the state. It painstakingly details his academic credentials – IIT, JNU, fellowships, as if a resume is a get-out-of-jail-free card for actions that threaten national integrity. This is a familiar, tired tactic: humanize the accused to the point where their alleged crimes are relegated to a secondary footnote.
But let’s strip away the glossiness and examine the basic, raw facts that the article conveniently leaves out.
What Did Sharjeel Imam Say?
In the January 2020 speech at AMU, he says, “They have been doing for 70 years. Now the time has come to tell non-Muslims that if you are a supporter, then stand up for our terms. If they cannot stand up to our conditions.”
This is followed by chants of Nara-e-takbeer, Allahu Akbar.
He continues, “I saw this in Bihar, let me give you an example of Bihar. There were many rallies held there. Every day 1-2 big rallies takes place there. Look at Kanhaiya’s rally. There were 5 lakh people in that rally. Now the problem is only that, I have already mentioned it, if we had 5 lakh people organized, then we can permanently cut India and North-east. Not permanently, but atleast for about a month. It would take them more than a month to remove us from all the roads. It is our responsibility to separate Assam. Assam and India should get separated, only then they will listen to us. Do you know the condition of Muslims in Assam? CAA has been implemented there, people are being put in detention camps. A massacre is taking place over there, in a few months we will come to know they have killed off all the Bengalis, whether Hindus or Muslims. If we want to help Assam, we will have to shut off the route to Assam for the army, for the supplies that go from here, etc. And we can do it. Because the chicken neck corridor is a Muslim dominant area. What will politicians like Kanhaiya do? They will get people to chant slogans of Inqalab, they will get a few photographs clicked and they will leave. The claps will be of our people, the face will be theirs. Not one productive thing has come out of that till today, not one productive thing, we need to remember this as well. If the masses are angry, then it is the responsibility of politicians, scholars and community leaders to use that anger productively rather than wasting it on photo sessions.”
He adds, “Let us understand one more thing. Sensitisation is not in our control. It is in the control of those who worship the Indian nation. Whether that be the left or the congress, all of them are guilty of the same thing. It will come in our control if we make a group of Muslim scholars and within that group we don’t debate whether we are nationalists or not. It is one thing to construct a facade for the outside world because we have to stay shut for some days due to the so-called conditions in India.”
Sharjeel Imam’s inflammatory hate speech on 13 December 2019 instigated mobs to run riot on 15 December.
Sharjeel Imam had a role in planning and instigating Delhi riots.
Sharjeel Imam called on Muslims to cut off Assam from India by choking the ‘Chicken’s Neck’.
He gets bail? https://t.co/uqZThHTvet pic.twitter.com/Lt3Iv10zlO— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) September 30, 2022
The article’s central pivot is to reduce Imam’s incendiary speeches to a simple “call for chakka jam.” This is a staggering act of trivialization. In that speech, Sharjeel Imam did not call for a temporary roadblock. He explicitly called for mobilizing five lakh people to cut off the Siliguri Corridor, India’s vital “chicken neck”, permanently. This is a secessionist blueprint. The intent was not to inconvenience the government but to sever a geographic artery, economically and physically annexing the Northeast. To label this a “chakka jam” is like calling an armed rebellion a “vigorous debate.”
The Wire spends paragraphs arguing the legality of road blockades, citing historical judgments on peaceful assembly. This is a red herring. The issue is not the right to protest but the objective of the protest. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) defines a terrorist act as one done with intent to threaten India’s unity, integrity, and sovereignty.
Can anyone, in good faith, argue that a call to permanently cut off a region from the rest of the country does not fit this definition? The Supreme Court, in denying bail, did not punish Imam for protesting the CAA. It identified a prima facie case that he played a “foundational role in a calibrated conspiracy” aimed at massive disruption and violence. The Court rightly distinguished between participating in a protest and being its “ideational driver” with secessionist goals.
The article’s reverent listing of Imam’s degrees is perhaps its most insidious argument. It implies that a man of such learning could not possibly mean what he said or that his intellect somehow mitigates the severity of his actions.
This is a dangerous fallacy. Education does not confer moral immunity. Osama bin Laden was an engineer. The 9/11 hijackers were university graduates. The perpetrator of the 2022 Coimbatore blast was an engineer. Qualifications are irrelevant when the speech is a clear incitement to violence and disintegration.
The Wire asks, “Can we fault Sharjeel Imam… for dreaming of a better world?” The question is disingenuous. One dreams of a better world through reform, dialogue, and constitutional means, not by rallying crowds to cut the country in two. What he did was sedition.
The article meticulously catalogs alleged hate speeches by BJP leaders to create a false equivalence. Yet, it completely divorces Imam’s speeches from the February riots, despite the prosecution’s timeline of a conspiracy. More importantly, it refuses to acknowledge that two wrongs do not make a right. Incitement from one side does not legitimize incitement from another, especially when that incitement targets the very map of India.
Not Misunderstood, Just Accurately Called Out
Sharjeel Imam is not “paying the price of being misunderstood.” He is facing the legal consequences for actions and words that, as per the investigating agencies and the courts, crossed the bright red line from dissent to secessionist conspiracy.
A free press is essential, and criticism of the government is the lifeblood of democracy. But freedom comes with responsibility. When a media outlet engages in wordy gymnastics to dress up a call for territorial dismemberment as a noble act of protest, it exposes where its loyalties lay – to the seditionists and not to the nation. It is providing intellectual cover for ideas that strike at the foundation of the Republic.
The people of India understand the difference between a chakka jam and a call to break the country. It is a pity The Wire seems so determined not to.
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