After Shehla Rashid retweets her, JNU girl gets rape threats from ‘Sanghi trolls’

As protests erupted on the Jawaharlal University campus on April 27 after Global Indian Foundation and Vivekanand Vichar Manch, a student group affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) screened the controversial film allegedly on the religious conversions of girls in Kerala, ‘In the name of love’, JNUSU Councillor Swati Singh posted videos of aggression by a few students, allegedly from the student outfit ABVP, on Twitter.

The tweet, retweeted by former JNU student Shehla Rashid, attracted several “Sanghi trolls”, who bombarded Singh with numerous rape threats and character assassination on the micro-blogging website. “Thankfully, I’ve changed settings on my Facebook so that only my friends can comment on my posts, otherwise I’m sure I would have been attacked there as well,” Singh told National Herald.

Some of the vicious, violent tweets can be seen below:

Nothing new about violent threats from rightwing trolls, says Singh

A politically active student activist, Singh has been vocal about her resentment against the rightwing and the present central government, and that, she says, may be a bigger reason for her getting such violent threats. However, the frequency of such messages increased exponentially after former JNUSU vice president Rashid shared a few of her tweets.

“Although there is nothing new about it as we (women) have to deal with such threats and name calling for numerous reasons, but after Shehla shared my tweet, random strangers commented on the thread and started giving threats in various ways,” Singh told NH. “I was the one sharing all the evidences of the atrocities (allegedly) by the ABVP students and I suspect that the ABVP and the RSS may be behind the trolling,” she added.

The profiles, she continued, were visibly fake profiles with rarely any followers and all their tweets and retweets praising the present establishment and targeting everyone who spoke against the regime.

Former JNUSU president Geeta Kumari also told NH, “There is nothing new about these threats. Swati was sharing all the details of the violent ABVP mob that targeted former JNUSU president Mohit Pandey by pelting stones at his car and hurling abuses at him. That’s what got the trolls going as they vehemently abused her and even gave her severe rape threats.”