Before Amritpal Singh became the head of Waris Punjab De, before he was pegged as a “youth leader”, before he went on the run leading to a police manhunt spanning weeks – he was plain Amrit Singh Sandhu based in Dubai, with a reputation of instigating trolling towards feminists on Twitter.

Seven women told Newslaundry he allegedly instigated a mass bullying campaign in 2022 against several Punjabi and Sikh feminists after suggesting a Twitter Spaces debate on “hypocrisy of leftist feminists”.

Those targeted who spoke to Newslaundry for this story include Nikita Azad, a Rhodes scholar, feminist writer and activist associated with Democratic Students’ Organisation at Punjabi University; Navkiran Natt, an activist with the All India Students’ Association and the cofounder of independent newspaper Trolley Times; and Kawalpreet Kaur, lawyer with the Human Rights Law Network and national vice-president of the All India Students’ Association.

According to Navkiran, 31, it all began when Amritpal tagged her in a Facebook post on February 3 last year. 

Loosely translated, Amritpal wrote in his post that this was an “open call to Punjabi feminists to engage in a debate”.

“This is an opportunity for those who present untrue facts about us to prove us wrong,” he wrote in Punjabi. “...But don’t forget that when one team is in the battleground and another doesn’t even enter, then the first team is considered a winner.”

Navkirat said she had “no idea who Amritpal was before that”, adding that his social media profile indicated he was in London but she later learned he was in Dubai. “I had no idea who this man was, where he was from.”

It was a turbulent time. For the past year, farmers had been protesting against the Modi government’s farm laws on the borders of Delhi. The government would finally withdraw the laws on November 19, 2022, three months before the legislative assembly election in Punjab . 

“It was during the cusp of the conclusion of the farmers’ movement. Elections were ahead of us in Punjab. The mood in Punjab was very political and there was a lot of debate and discussion,” Navkiran recalled. “During the farmers’ movement, a section [on social media] called for a debate around themes like ‘Left vs Sikhs’. I thought Amritpal was just a part of that.”

Navkiran did not respond to the post. 

Meanwhile, the comment section of Amritpal’s post was a cesspool of hate. “She wants to be fucked in the ass,” said one comment. “We need to fuck her,” said another. A third said, “They will be banged.” None of these comments were posted by Amritpal.

“I was tagged by multiple people on multiple platforms,” Navkiran said. “It was so vulgar and problematic. I felt it was like throwing a rock in mud to have a conversation with these people.”  

Reading through the comments, Navkiran was filled with anger and disgust. 

“This was not supposed to be a platform for serious debate and discussion,” she said, “but it had become a breeding ground for the worst kind of misogyny and hate. If the debate was serious, insteading of putting out the poster on social media, any one of them could have messaged us asking if we wanted to have a conversation. That way, I would have seen a serious and genuine effort towards a legitimate debate. This just seemed an attempt to troll us – not engage in a debate.”

Kawalpreet Kaur said Amritpal allegedly messaged her on Instagram in February 2022, attacking her “feminist” and “leftist” principles. 

“Back then, he wasn’t the Amritpal you see today,” she said. “Once, he DMed me on Instagram – trolled me, rather. It was a complicated conversation. He kind of attacked me for being a Sikh woman and questioned why I’m associated with left activism and a ‘lefty feminist’, as he put it in a very derogatory manner.”

She added, “But all those things, I’m very proud of that.”

Kawalpreet alleged that Amritpal also told her “how I should behave as a Sikh woman”. “I said, ‘you don’t know anything about me or my background.’ I called him out, saying ‘you are a clean-shaven person, how can you talk about Sikhi to me?’”

She later blocked his Instagram account, saying she felt “particularly bad that a Sikh man was questioning me”. 

“Why should I tell him about my background or why I came into activism when I was just a student in Delhi University?” she said.

Nikita Azad, who is also the author of Dhakalandazi, a book of feminist essays in Punjabi, had a similar interaction in the same month. She lived in the United Kingdom at the time. 

At the time, she said, Amritpal was just starting to taste the popularity he has today.

“He would post things like ‘Punjabi feminism is cancer’. His followers, though – this was a space that was beginning to see Amritpal as their representative and leader,” Nikita said. “They bullied us a lot. I had some personal photos, where I was wearing a dress or with my partner holding hands. They morphed the photos and wrote text over the photos that was vulgar, commenting on my body.”

For instance, she said, in photos where her cleavage was visible, the photos would be reposted with the text “grow your breasts”. She clarified that Amritpal never posted these comments himself but “enabled these people”. 

It was around this time that Nikita received a phone call from an Amritsar number.

“They threatened me saying there was a bullet with my name on it,” she said, her voice trembling. “They told me if I didn’t stay within the Guru’s mariyada” – referring to the limits of religion – “they would butcher me. And then they added, ‘We know where you live, where your family lives, where your sister lives...’”

That’s when Nikita felt “physically unsafe”. “Before that, I knew I was removed from the situation because I was in the UK. But when it came to my family – that’s when it hit me.”

Navkiran said she’s become so desensitised to online abuse that it’s now little more than a nuisance. “At that point, it wasn’t like they could physically harm me by acting on the comments they wrote on social media,” she said wearily. “I was just in the mindset of ‘it happens, it happens, we’ll deal with it then’.”

But the degree of abuse was difficult to ignore, block or move past. Preet*, for instance, told Newslaundry she’d posted on Instagram condemning the December 2021 sacrilege issue at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. She did not want any details published in this report so as to keep her identity safe.

After her post, Preet said all hell broke loose. Amritpal never directly got involved but his “associate Papalpreet shared the screenshot”, she said. She soon received death and rape threats on social media. 

“One of the bullies online even shared my location and threatened me with consequences,” she said. “That was when I started feeling unsafe.” Preet filed a complaint with the police’s cybercrime unit against two persons who threatened her, but there was no progress on her case.

Kawalpreet said she was sad that people from her own community were trolling her. 

“It was coming from my people,” she said. “What do you say to that?”

On Amritpal today

Navkiran, Nikita and Kawalpreet limited their social media posts after the harassment. Navkiran stopped posting altogether.

“When you reach that level of bullying and harassment, it means you are not ready for debate or discussion but just want to silence the other side,” she said, adding that this is how feminist voices are silenced in Punjab.

Yet all three women are clear that the current events unfolding in Punjab are significant, and not limited to just one man’s actions.

“I think the entire situation is politically orchestrated,” said Navkiran on Amritpal’s rise and current fugitive status. “I’m not sure if Amritpal is aware of it or not but he’s just a pawn in a bigger scheme. I strongly oppose the state’s actions that have resulted in fear and instability in Punjab – not only in relation to Amritpal but overall.”

Navkiran does not believe Amritpal’s sudden popularity is “organic”.

“In February 2022, someone on social media was bullying young women in Punjab. Though I’m sure someone must have condemned it, that person suddenly became a hero and the head of Waris Punjab De,” she said. “Punjab’s youth began to see him as a saviour, which is when I think things were orchestrated. He has no roots in Punjab. He arrived only a few months ago yet he’s suddenly everywhere.”

She contrasted this with other activists who have been on the ground for years. “Even if they organise large protests – like the one on microfinance that had 8,000 people in protest – only the Punjabi Tribune would cover it at most,” she pointed out. “Meanwhile, a man who was parachuted into Punjab is being personally interviewed by the biggest media houses, making him a hero. It’s clear things are not black and white.”

Kawalpreet said the Punjab government’s response to Amritpal has been “brutal” which is why she thinks he’s also been “wronged”.

“Is he a leader? I’d say no,” Kawalpreet continued. “But is he someone who deserves to be treated as human, with dignity? Then yes. Should he be charged under the NSA or UAPA? Absolutely no.”

Nikita said, “He is someone I can never follow because he is anti-feminist. He refuses to talk about caste in Punjab. I don’t have any faith in his politics. At the same time, arresting him, going after him, and simultaneously cracking down on civil rights activists, lawyers and journalists – that is very dangerous.”

What about the demands for Khalistan? Is the sentiment strong in the state?

Navkiran said it’s absurd to claim a man arrived in Punjab a few months ago and now the entire state demands Khalistan. “But to say the Khalistani sentiment does not exist in Punjab is untrue,” she added. “There is a section in Punjab where the sentiment still exists.”

On whether she supports Amritpal’s brand of politics, Kawalpreet said the answer is “yes and no”.

“No, I do not believe in a separate Sikh nation. I believe in the constitution. But I do believe in justice and Punjabiyat. So if Amritpal agrees with me then I agree with him on those issues,” she said. “Don’t the people of Punjab deserve justice? Justice has not been done.”

She added that she does not believe in Amritpal’s “politics of masculinity”, because “he has left very little space for women like us, Sikh feminists or women”.

Navkiran said, “If someone wants Punjabi as a community – where there are Hindus, Christians and Muslims wanting an autonomous state – then it’s understandable. I don’t see anything wrong with it. But when one says we want Khalistan to be a Sikh state, I find it very problematic. I don’t support that.”

*Name changed to protect identity.

Update on April 7: One sentence and two screenshots have been deleted keeping in mind the sensitivity of this story. This report initially indicated all the women in the poster had been contacted. This has been removed. The error is regretted.