The past few weeks have served as a reminder that even women in a position of power in India are not safe from facing harassment and sexual violence, and justice is as far a reality for them as it is for a common woman, complicated by further marginalization of caste, creed and religion. Towards the end of 2023, we saw Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik being forced to retire from wrestling in protest of a close aid of her sexual abuser becoming the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). Notably, the said sexual abuser is still a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). While India was yet to overcome the pictures of Sakshi Malik crying at a press conference and leaving her wrestling shoes on the table as she announced her retirement, the news of three men, two of which were associated with the ruling party, getting arrested for gang raping a 20 year old student in the campus of IIT- BHU surfaced. The association of the accused with the BJP party, along with their photos with the top-most leaders, caused an uproar on social media. High on the heels of this news, during the first week of 2024, we now witness a female Congress spokesperson being subjected to cyber harassment by leaders of the BJP party and its affiliated persons.
Since January 2, Lavanya Ballal Jain, a spokesperson for the Congress party, has become the target of online trolling after a heated TV debate with BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla. The incident occurred during a live interview where Poonawalla made comments on Jain’s name and mockingly referred to her as “Lavanya BJ”, which lead to a sharp exchange between the two. In the interview itself, Lavanya pointedly asked Poonawalla to not make sly comments against her name.
“Do not make vulgar inferences, I’m very aware of the social media team talking about my name,” Lavanya had said while asking the host of the TV interview to ‘control’ her guest during the debate.
In response to her remark, Poonawalla could be seen smiling shamelessly.
The controversy further escalated when Poonawalla posted a video clip of the TV interview on his social media account, questioning why Jain was triggered by his factual statements. The said video had been captioned by Poonawalla as “Don’t know why Lavanya BJ was so triggered when I quoted facts!!”
The said post can be viewed here:
Don’t know why Lavanya BJ was so triggered when I quoted facts !! 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Vi6KdfDfvr
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 2, 2024
As the said post started getting wind, Lavanya took to social media to express her dismay and accused Poonawalla of insulting her name and religion during the TV interview. She referred to the BJP spokesperson as a ‘cheapster’ and urged him to refrain from making vulgar comments during interviews. In a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), Lavanya also claimed that Poonawalla was on the payroll of one of the richest Jain individuals, indirectly alluding to Gautam Adani.
“Abusing Jain’s while being on their payroll is a bj party habit. Your payroll comes from one of the richest (Jain) man on earth,” wrote Lavanya in her post.
The said post can be viewed here:
cheapster @Shehzad_Ind
You may think your antics are smart,but Mr.dimwit this comment is an insult to my religion.
Abusing Jain’s while being on their payroll is a bj party habit. Your payroll comes from one of the richest (Jain) man on earth.
Meanwhile your life is so pathetic… https://t.co/fahC9mCaB5— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) January 3, 2024
As was expected, the comments made by Poonawalla led to opening of a flood gate of misogynistic and derogatory remarks against Lavanya. Following the TV debate, Lavanya was severely trolled online on social media platforms, particularly on X, where the hashtag #LavanyaBJ gained traction and was trending for hours on X. Since the hashtag contained a derogatory term, the online attacks against the Congress spokesperson were further intensified. It is essential to highlight here that Poonawalla did not only ask the misogynistic bullies to not harass Lavanya, but rather was gleeful about the said hashtag trending for hours on X. in his post, Poonawala wrote:
Lavanya BJ is still trending from last evening ☺️
Never knew initials will trend so much 😀 https://t.co/ly4nyWbnfe
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 3, 2024
In another post later, he wrote “Now let’s move on from #LavanyaBJ – I know this isn’t in my or your control and its spontaneous outburst of people on SM towards the arrogance, ignorance of the congress spokesperson but let us now have the bigger heart & ignore her.”
The complete post can be accessed here:
Chalo guys
I think from now onwards the lesson has been learnt – World’s largest Democratic Party should not be called abbreviations that you yourself cannot handle.
Now let’s move on from #LavanyaBJ – I know this isn’t in my or your control & it’s spontaneous outburst of…
— Shehzad Jai Hind (@Shehzad_Ind) January 4, 2024
Poonawala has also reposted posts from his profile on ‘X’ which contains the said derogatory hashtag and misogynistic remarks.
Some of the same are:
This video of shehzad poonawalla’s will never be not funny! Lavanya BJ should have thought twice before messing with him! Thoda research kar leti 😂😂🔥🔥 BTW –#LavanyaBJ is still trending pic.twitter.com/HBhhKbqOe8
— Mini (@perfectminz) January 3, 2024
You were simply brilliant @Shehzad_Ind !@LavanyaBallal you need to learn from Shehzad how to do thorough homework before assuming the role of party spokesperson.
If I were you, I would intern with Shehzad for at least three years, learn to do proper research, garner facts,… https://t.co/qwCyTgX1M2
— Madhu Purnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) January 4, 2024
Some examples of the social media harassment that she was subjected to is as follows:
Madam #LavanyaBJ finds it “cute and positive” when grownup men from her Party, scan her from top to bottom. But she accuses a male co-panellist of another party being disrespectful and vulgur when she fails to answer his simple question. Hypocrisy or shamelessness?? pic.twitter.com/3wKhItflCj
— Alpaca Girl🇮🇳 (@Alpakanya) January 3, 2024
In support of “Lavanya BJ” #CongressParty has renamed the new Comedy show of #Pappu #RahulGandhi from BNY to BJ Nyay Yatra. #BharatJodoNyayYatra #Lavanya_BJ#LavanyaBJ pic.twitter.com/c5ryhWfP3s
— Ganesh (@me_ganesh14) January 4, 2024
Lavanya BJ aunty after successful BJ Yatra got healthy after their party diet.#LavanyaBJ pic.twitter.com/YuDqkfBYZB
— RamSavarkar Reddy (@TGDharmik) January 3, 2024
Lavanya BJ (ballal jain) at BJ (bharat jodo) yatra.#LavanyaBJ #istandwithLBJ ma’am. pic.twitter.com/Vyby2e7AkF
— 🚩 ದ್ರಿಷತ್ ರಾವ್.🇮🇳 (@drishatwarti) January 3, 2024
Lavanya responded to the said cyber harassment and attack strongly and did not let the remarks pass by. One of her post, responding to a troll, is as follows:
Dear troll,
You getting triggered won’t change the fact that you supported the rapists
Beyond that you are just prosaic clown #Yawn https://t.co/KH2h3rNeDl
— Lavanya Ballal Jain (@LavanyaBallal) January 3, 2024
While many BJP supporters justified using the sexual innuendo against Lavanya by claiming that she herself refers to the BJP as the “BJ party”, she pointed that she had started using the word as a way to hit back at persistent trolling.
In view of the amount of harassment that Lavanya faced, many people, any some political leaders, stood in support of Lavanya. Supriya Shrinate, Chairperson Social Media & Digital Platforms and Member of the Congress Working Committee, took to ‘X’ to slam the bullies and express her anguish at the harassment that Lavanya was being subjected to. Calling the incident to be a “mob lynching of the worst kind, armed with sexual innuendo”, Shrinate wrote:
What has gone on for the last 48 hours is not just shameful harassment of @LavanyaBallal , it’s actually mob lynching of the worst kind, armed with sexual innuendo.
In any civilised world this organised attack is an offence.
It’s a new low even for the BJP’s official and…
— Supriya Shrinate (@SupriyaShrinate) January 4, 2024
Mohan Kumaramangalam, Working President Tamilnadu Congress, also took to X to express his dismay and wrote:
I have never heard anyone use someone’s middle and last name’s initials to refer to them. Wonder why @Shehzad_Ind is so obsessed with BJs? Is his inordinate focus on the same the real reason for his rise in the BJ Party ? I have heard about stooping to conquer but kneeling to… https://t.co/bpcO9szOCL
— Mohan Kumaramangalam மோகன் குமாரமங்கலம் (@MKumaramangalam) January 3, 2024
Even today, more than two days after the incident, trolls were harassing her:
L BJ #LavanyaBJ
With filters. Without filter pic.twitter.com/hsCxPQTt6G
— ನಾಯಕಿ Nayakii 🇮🇳 (@nammsiem) January 5, 2024
This whole incident serves as a reminder as to how BJP leaders misbehave, and encourages others to demean women, especially if the woman is from an opposition party.
Related:
Trolling, harassment of Dalit writer and activist, Shalin Maria Lawrence condemned: NWMI