New Delhi: The aftermath of the Cockroach Janta Party-led student protests took a nasty turn three days after it ended, with several accounts on social media targeting Gen Z women associated with the movement using cropped and fake AI images and captions such as, “Find her. She abused Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
Before the protest was withdrawn on 25 July, youth and students protesting at Jantar Mantar were visibly enraged over the excessive use of force to quell the crowd on 20 July. The frustrated protesters vented with expletive slogans. Although these slogans were shouted by protesters of all genders, a few days later, hardliners began targeting only women.
The Jaipur Dialogues on X posted a series with several close-up cropped images, identifying and attacking women protesters. It posted a video of a Gen Z woman abusing PM Modi on camera, with the caption “Delhi Police… Put her behind bars to teach her a lesson”.
‘Arrest them’
A few days after the protest was called off, more than 300 students were arrested in Bihar, 13 in Assam and 16 in West Bengal, despite the Cockroach Janta Party’s (CJP) agreement with the Centre. However, the state government in Bihar and Assam Monday assured that it would release the youth protesters and withdraw any legal actions.
Additionally, Delhi Police has sent notices to social media accounts, directing them to delete “abusive” or “illegal” posts against PM Modi and other senior leaders.
Irrespective of actions by authorities, accounts on social media continued to target women protesters.
An account @Being_Humor, with more than four lakh followers, posted, “The biggest irony of the CJP protests was that the most misogynistic abuses were hurled by women themselves”.
The account posted a video of a woman who was hurling abuses at Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“What was the point of bringing @GiorgiaMeloni and abusing her, when the protest was by the students for the students?”, the account wrote.
Lt Col Sushil Singh Sheoran, an account with more than seven thousand followers, criticised the women for using foul language against PM Modi.
In the video posted by the account, a Gen Z protester is sloganeering with others, including men, and it can be heard that the entire crowd is abusing PM Modi.
“One of the biggest criticisms against the security forces at Janmantar is treating women unfairly. Ladies and gentlemen, when we are taught to respect women, what comes to our mind? Grace, sacrifice, commitment, loyalty, softness, unending love. And that’s when we are told to respect women. Whatever may be the equality debate, the day women lose it, that will be the end of morality in our society. Disgraceful,” Sheoran posted.
Also read: Kangana Ranaut raps CJP protesters over language, calls Gen Z the gutter generation
‘Handiwork of BJP IT Cell’
For Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, these are common sights which are practised after every protest.
“We have seen this after Shaheen Bagh and farmers’ protests,” he told ThePrint. “Women are singled out by using morphed images, misleading videos, fabricated stories, and personal attacks by taking videos from Instagram or their social media accounts. The objective is to discredit the protesters by attacking their character.”
He also claimed that BJP supporters are sharing an AI image of a woman claiming to be a protester.
Meanwhile, several accounts have targeted women who emerged as faces of protesters.
Rhiya Yadav Ahir, who became famous for stopping a police vehicle during the Mumbai CJP protest last week, filed a complaint alleging cyberbullying and trolling. She claimed that she was being bullied and stalked.
Calling it the handiwork of the BJP IT Cell, writer Hussain Haidry wrote, “They are asking Police of Delhi and UP to arrest them. They are instigating people to threaten and abuse these young girls. These are the same people who have publicly given Gaalis to women for a decade.”
(Edited by Saptak Datta)