‘Feels like career over’: The online campaign to intimidate women part of CJP protest

A BJP MLA posts a video of a bleeding, weeping girl and tells his followers she is being taught a lesson. The video is actually from Varanasi, from a domestic violence case, and has nothing to do with the protest. It does not matter. The comments say: she didn’t get beaten enough.

In the two weeks since the Cockroach Janata Party’s July 20 Parliament march, more than half a dozen women and girls who appeared in clips from CJP protests have been identified across X, Instagram and Facebook – by an elected legislator, by Hindutva handles with large followings, by strangers who have sought to file police complaints and published home addresses. They face threats of rape and death.

There are other consequences too. A yoga instructor has lost many of her clients, a widowed mother has lost her tuition work, a teenager’s family home stands locked. 

The case that has drawn the most television attention is that of Ruchika Singh, a 15-year-old filmed at Jantar Mantar using expletives against Prime Minister Modi, who now faces charges of defamation and “intentional insult to provoke breach of peace”. Late on Friday night, Modi posted a video saying he had been subjected to all kinds of abuse during the protests, and that he forgave everyone. She posted her own soon after – she had fallen under the influence of certain YouTubers that day, she said; she was ashamed; she apologised to him and to the country.

It did not end. Users began matching stills from the apology against footage from the protest – eyebrows, nose piercings, hair colour, teeth – to argue that the two were different girls. An account named Khetan Anup posted several such videos. “The two girls don’t look alike,” one caption read. “Something seems fishy here.”

The case against Ruchika

Ravi Negi, the BJP MLA from East Delhi's Patparganj constituency, known locally for turning up in Mayur Vihar to demand shopkeepers’ names, shared the Varanasi video on his social media account days after the march. He then shared a second video, filmed inside his own office, showing two or three men seated around him working out a girl’s address. She is a resident of Mandawali, in East Delhi, they establish. “First, we will have her summoned to the police station,” Negi says. In another video, he says: “We will definitely find the girl today or tomorrow. She will have to apologise in a public place. We will take legal action against her.”

The girl from Mandawali had raised questions about the gates of the Hanuman Temple in Connaught Place being shut for CJP protesters on July 20. Someone had filmed her asking. The clip was widely circulated. The temple priest has since told reporters the gates were closed because the atmosphere that day had turned volatile.

Negi is not the only one trying to trace these women protesters.

On July 29, a zero FIR was registered in Noida under Sections 352, 353(1) and 356(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. It names Ruchika Singh, whose video abusing the Prime Minister had spread widely online. She has since been discussed on several TV news channels.

The complainant is Smriti Singh, who identifies herself as a Supreme Court lawyer and as the Ghaziabad district president of the women’s wing of Raghuraj Pratap Singh’s Jansatta Loktantrik Dal. Raghuraj Pratap Singh is better known as Raja Bhaiya.

The FIR records Ruchika’s home address. Asked how she got it, Smriti Singh – a native of Ballia – said she found it on social media. Asked who had posted it there, she said, “I have forgotten who shared it.”

Her Instagram account carries videos of others discussing Ruchika; in some, men say they have located her address and that she has fled her home, and predict the police will find her soon.

Smriti Singh’s explanation for the FIR: “The language used was intolerable. Using such words for a person holding the office of Prime Minister is inappropriate for society. Our children also use social media; what would they learn from this? I am not opposed to the CJP’s movement, but during this campaign, several people emerged who appeared to use abusive language solely to increase their follower count. It is necessary to teach them a lesson.”

The Noida flat named in the FIR is reportedly locked. Amit Kumar Khari, SHO of Noida Expressway police station, earlier said: “People came to us to file the FIR, but the incident took place at Jantar Mantar. We registered the FIR and sent it to the Parliament Street Police Station.”

Some media reports claimed the Delhi Police is not filing an FIR. Indrajit, SHO of Parliament Street police station, refused to comment.

Saurav Das, national spokesperson of the Cockroach Janata Party, earlier said the criminal law had no business here: “If an individual feels their reputation has been harmed, they can file a defamation case."

Ruchika’s lawyer, Anil Singh, said the FIR gets basic facts wrong, beginning with her age. “Several details in the FIR, including the girl’s age, are recorded incorrectly. Her birthday was just yesterday, and she has now turned 15. Her mother is a widow who used to support the household by tutoring children, but she has lost that work as well following this entire controversy. The family’s financial condition is also poor.”

“As of now, we have neither received a notice nor had any official contact from the police. If a notice arrives in the future or further legal action is taken in this matter, we will decide our next steps accordingly.”

‘I have stopped checking my Instagram’

Nishu, from Ghaziabad, spoke at a protest against the paper leak. Her remark about the Prime Minister was neither obscene nor objectionable. It has cost her her account.

An X user posting as ‘Boiled Anda’ — bio: “Sanghi”; cover photo: Yogi Adityanath, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah – shared her video and called her a prostitute, alleging she had abused and mocked the Prime Minister and served samosas under a “Modi’s tehravin” banner at a CJP protest. 

A separate story went around claiming Nishu had been evicted by her landlord over what she said at Jantar Mantar. Several handles amplified it. Nishu told Newslaundry the landlord had asked her to vacate about a month earlier – though, she says, he also told her, “Your views and ours differ.”

She has largely stopped using social media now. She opens the app to post a video, checks the likes, and closes it before the comments load. “I am inspired by Savitribai Phule. When she went to educate girls, cow dung, mud, and stones were thrown at her. If I am being abused on social media today, it doesn’t bother me much,” she said.

Some of the targeting has been systematic.

Neha, national president of the All India Students Association, drew this from the pro-Hindutva handle Jaipur Dialogues, which shared her video with the line: “I urge Bajrang Dal to teach her a lesson.” The same handle later posted a video of Ruchika, claiming she had been found.

An X user called Courageous posted photographs of Mayuri Malhotra giving an interview at the protest, along with her age, her educational background and other personal details, claiming she was abusing the prime minister “solely for fame”.

Yogi Sarkar 2027, a fan account for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, shared a video of a young woman describing the placard she was holding and appealed to followers to identify her and launch a “search operation”. In the clip, a man with a red tilak on his forehead says: “Jai Shri Ram. If you are a true Hindu, identify this girl and shove this very banner into her…”

‘It feels as though my career is over’

Shraddha Singh made a video about RAF and police personnel during the CJP protest. She is 23, a yoga instructor, and she says she is now receiving rape and death threats. Newslaundry found abuse directed at her across platforms and at her mother.

An X user, ‘Serious Funny Guy’, who routinely posts videos of women influencers to target them, shared her clip with the caption: “Loving this meltdown”.

“People are constantly targeting me. I have confined myself to my home and have practically stopped stepping out. My life has changed completely. I am a yoga instructor, and I lost many clients after this controversy. It feels as though my career is over,” she told Newslaundry.

The abuse now runs under her yoga videos. “The very people who used to be inspired by me are now writing ‘Shame on you’. Many of them don’t even know what actually happened; they think I abused the Prime Minister.”

Some people, she says, have worked out where she lives. “I had made several videos in support of the police and posted many ordinary, positive videos as well, but no one watched them. People are judging me based on just one incident.”

She will not attend another protest. “I just want to live a normal life now.”

In Mumbai, Urvashi Palandurkar filmed herself singing and dancing at a CJP protest. There was no abuse in the clip, no profanity. The Chhattisgarh BJP posted it alongside footage of a child receiving an award from the President, asking: “A Gen-Z dancing to the legacy of Babur, or a Gen-Z bringing honor to Chhattisgarh? Which kind of Gen-Z would you choose?”

Urvashi replied that she does rather more than dance. She scored up to 93 percent in her Class 10 and 12 board exams.

CJP spokesperson Ratna Singh herself has said on X that she is receiving death threats and abuse.


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