The ever polarising world of Twitter saw a new flashpoint after arrest of five eminent intellectuals and lawyers by Pune Police on Tuesday. While liberals described it as second Emergency with overdose of Orwell references, the right wing supporters gloated about the arrest saying urban naxals have been arrested.

This continued for the day, but it was bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri's tweet that started a frenzy. Agnihotri who is known for hitting out at liberals and left leaning intellectuals often labelling them as urban naxals and maoist sympathisers said:

I want some bright young people to make a list of all those who are defending #UrbanNaxals Let’s see where it leads. If you want to volunteer with commitment, pl DM me. @squintneon would you like to take the lead? August 28, 2018

Many intellectuals, journalists and left liberals protested against this tweet with the hashtag #MeTooUrbanNaxal. At the time of writing, it was number 2 in the India trending list.

These are some of the tweets:

Hey @vivekagnihotri, I volunteer to be on your list. Let's tag @vivekagnihotri with the hashtag #MeTooUrbanNaxal and help him build his list. We should all help this man in his noble endeavour. https://t.co/zY1Azarv8l August 29, 2018

Hi @vivekagnihotri, Dissent is important for our democracy to function and to hold our Government accountable. I intend to do exactly that. Put me on your list.#metoourbannaxal — Meghnad (@Memeghnad) August 29, 2018

Hi @vivekagnihotri How's that list going? Have enough? If not, put my name on it #MeTooUrbanNaxal — Sandhya Menon (@TheRestlessQuil) August 29, 2018

Love the #MeTooUrbanNaxal trend. More power to resilience. More power to the good fight. — Nazia Erum (@nazia_e) August 29, 2018

I am pretty sure if Bhagat Singh was alive today, he would be on that list too.#MeTooUrbanNaxal @vivekagnihotri — Akshay Gupta (@akshay_gupta01) August 29, 2018

All love and respect for those who are saying #MeTooUrbanNaxal but there are many out there who don’t really have the privilege of caste, religion, money or class, to even say this. They know if the hit list is *real*, they will be the ones picked first. — Ashwaq Masoodi (@ashwaqM) August 29, 2018

If asking the questions, or standing up for humanity and freedom of speech makes me an urban Naxal... then I’m proud to be one #MeTooUrbanNaxal — Archana Bhardwaj (@archieroolz) August 29, 2018

Because petrol is at 85 and yet the excessive tax collection isn't reaching the poor! I will ask more questions and keep protesting. #MeTooUrbanNaxal — Bhookkad Guy (@rogueacademic88) August 29, 2018

After arresting five persons from different cities of the country for their alleged Maoists links, Pune police will be producing three of them including Varavara Rao, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira in Shivajinagar court in Pune today afternoon. Pune police have not yet got the transit remand of the other two, Gautam Navlakha and Sudha Bharadwaj whose arrests have been challenged in the respective courts from where they were arrested. On the other hand, a group of eminent intellectuals have moved SC challenging arrest of these five activists. SC will hear the case at 3.15 PM.

Police confirmed that Rao, Gonsalves and Ferreira have been brought to Pune after they were arrested from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Thane respectively on Tuesday. They are likely to be brought to Pune court at around 2 pm today.

Various teams of Pune police conducted raids at the residences of Rao, Gonsalves, Ferreira as well as Bharadwaj in Faridabad and Navlakha in Delhi early morning on Tuesday. Following the raids, they were arrested and police approached the local courts for their transit remand.

These five have been arrested in connection with the case registered in Vishrambaug police station in regards with the Elgaar Parishad held in Pune in December last year. In the past, police have arrested five persons Sudhir Dhavale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Rona Wilson and Shoma Sen for their alleged role in facilitating Maoists funding for the Elgaar Parishad. Police officials have claimed that they have found strong evidence to show that the event had received the funds from Maoists.