Scores of Indians paid tribute to journalist Tarek Fatah who passed away after a protracted battle with cancer last week. His ‘love for Hindustan’ may have had something to do with it
Illustration/Uday Mohite
Lion of Punjab. Son of Hindustan. Lover of Canada. Speaker of truth. Fighter for justice. Voice of the down-trodden, underdogs, and the oppressed.”
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This is how Natasha Fatah, daughter of late journalist and author Tarek Fatah, described him in a tweet she posted last week. The journalist and news presenter with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, paid tribute to her father, while announcing his demise on April 24, following a battle with cancer.
For several days before and after his death, social media was abuzz with discussions about the man. The news of his passing only led to a heavier surge of tweets and posts, with many lamenting the loss. Why, though, did a Pakistan-born resident of Canada become a talking point in India?
According to entrepreneur Divya Gandotra Tandon, director of Internet media company Scoop Beats Pvt Ltd, Fatah’s “influential and controversial public persona” is responsible for the social media frenzy around him.
Divya Tandon Gandotra, Pratik Sinha, Poonam Joshi and Arshia Malik
“Frequently igniting debates and discussions, Fatah, a notable writer and activist fearlessly voiced his opinions on sensitive topics related to religion, politics, and society,” says Tandon, adding, “Amidst both praise and criticism for his opinions on Islamic extremism, terrorism, and change within the Muslim community, his passing has sparked curiosity from his followers in India and other regions. His death has come during a time of conflict for the freedom of the press and expression, which is particularly contentious in India.”
Tandon was among the many Indians who took to Twitter to express grief at the news of his death, referring to him as “a brilliant thinker and a courageous voice”.
The Hindu right-wing organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, also issued a statement condoling Fatah’s death on April 24. “ He was an eminent thinker, author and commentator. His significant contributions to the media and the literary world will be greatly remembered. He remained committed to his principles and beliefs throughout his life and was respected for his courage and conviction,” RSS General Secretary Dattatrey Hosabale said in the statement.
Fatah was known for his vocal opposition to Islamic practices, speaking against “Hinduphobia” and retweeting Indian right-wingers’ posts. On more than one occasion, Fatah referred to himself as “an Indian born in Pakistan”.
His parents migrated from then Bombay to Karachi before he was born in 1949. While he graduated in biochemistry, he chose to pursue journalism, and was jailed by two military governments in Pakistan in the 1960s-70s for his work as a student activist. He was barred from practising journalism by the former Pakistan President Zia-ul-Haq, which led him to migrate to Canada in 1987.
Delhi-based columnist Arshia Malik says he didn’t shy away from challenging the existing hierarchies and talking about things that no one wanted the common man to hear. “Fatah’s views were not so much radical as they were contrarian. He spoke fearlessly about how the current form of Islam, governed by the religious leaders, was far from the message of the Prophet Mohammed. He liked to call it the difference between Allah ka Islam and Mullah ka Islam. He saw through the ISI, the machinations of Pakistan’s political establishments, the lies they told the people, the way their actions led to civil war and the formation of Bangladesh, and he never stopped talking about it.”
Malik says that it is hardly surprising that he was a talking point among Indians. “Here’s a Pakistani Muslim asking Indians ‘why are you being so defensive about our Indic roots?’, how Pakistan is a construct that has no business to exist and how the demand for an ‘Azad Kashmir’ was ridiculous because you can’t have a Kashmir without its indigenous population,” she says.
Pratik Sinha, co-founder and editor of fact-checking portal Alt News, says that Fatah’s own religious identity coupled with his views made him a favourite of the India right-wing. One of his recent tweets, dated April 16, had a picture of Mahatma Gandhi with the caption saying, “He left us for the wolves but now we know the difference”.
“Anybody with a Muslim name supporting right-wing ideology is automatically in high demand, and that is not just limited to Fatah. There are so few of them, but they become the poster boys for the right, because they say that the BJP is ‘right’ and the Muslims are at fault for what is happening in India,” he says.
Sinha had his share of brushes with Fatah on Twitter, as the latter was frequently called out for posting doctored videos and other instances of misinformation. In 2019, Fatah posted a video about a protest rally against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Lucknow, claiming that the protesters were raising slogans of “Pakistan Zindabad”. Sinha examined the video and tagged Fatah, pointing out that the protesters were actually saying “Kashif Sahab Zindabad” in support of Kashif Ahmed, a leader with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), who was leading the rally.
A frequent grouse expressed against Fatah was that he never deleted his posts even after they were proven to be fake. “Someone posting misinformation owing to an inherent bias is one thing. But if you don’t delete it even after knowing what it is, you simply don’t care. You’re looking for reach and validation. Fatah gained social currency through his posts, and that is a very effective way of becoming mainstream in politics and journalism,” says Sinha.
Journalist Poonam Joshi, who also runs an organisation against marital abuse in the United Kingdom named Indian Ladies UK, points out other instances. Fatah had shared a video of burqa-clad women dancing at a wedding in Dhaka, claiming that they were Shaheen Bagh protesters in Delhi. “I honestly can’t speak about Fatah’s motivations but throughout history, individuals have used the tactic of creating division to promote their unique worldview,” she says, “That’s just a fact of history and it happens all over the world; it’s not confined to any one particular ideology or religion—they could be Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, capitalist or communist.”
Much to the chagrin of his detractors, Fatah was nominated as the man to rename Lodhi Gardens in Delhi as Tarek Fatah Gardens by retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and lawyer Sanjay Dixit who posted a “request” on Instagram. Natasha has already tweeted a screenshot of the post, and her tweet has garnered over 6,000 likes and more than 1,600 retweets since it was posted on April 27. Dixit runs a pro-right wing YouTube channel named the Jaipur Dialogue, which also has a presence on other social media platforms. mid-day reached out to Dixit for a comment, but received no response.
Fatah himself became a victim of misinformation in his final days. Even as he was battling cancer, a tweet surfaced on April 21—three days before his death—claiming that he had passed away. It quickly gathered traction, even as fact-checkers got in touch with Natasha, who denied the claim. She also tweeted saying that Fatah was alive.
On April 28, three days after his death, Fatah was cremated in Canada. Once again, social media erupted with reports that he was denied a space for burial as per Islamic traditions. Natasha, however, countered these reports, pointing out three different tweets in which Fatah had stated that he wished to be cremated. “Like my ancestors, I, too, will not occupy a piece of land after I’m gone only to be eaten by worms as the body rots,” he had tweeted.
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