Over the past week, the Mumbai and Delhi police have arrested five people in connection to two apps—Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals—that target Muslim women. The identities of those arrested offer an eye-opening view of the footsoldiers of the extreme Hindu right.
Researched by: Sara Varghese & Prafula Grace Busi
PS: If you need more background, check out our most recent explainer on the apps.
The accused are mostly young college students—educated and from middle class backgrounds.
Vishal Kumar Jha: The 21-year old civil engineering student in Bangalore was the first to be arrested by the Mumbai police. He is accused of using various social media accounts to post hateful content from the Bulli Bai app. Jha claims he was merely following instructions. The family says their son was a bright kid in Patna with a “warm social outlook”—but changed when he started college in Bangalore. According to the college, he was an introvert but “not a troublemaker.” There is no indication that his family or his father—who is a class II railway officer—held strong political views.
Shweta Singh: The 18-year old’s arrest—for sharing Bulli Bai content from her Twitter handle—shocked many because of her gender. The Uttarakhand police seemed to excuse her behaviour—pointing to the fact she has lost both her parents and may have been under pressure to earn money. Unlike the others, she was planning to pursue a degree in archaeology. She too is described as a loner by her family—who call themselves “lower middle class,” but deny that they were short of money. The police describe Singh as a “Hindu fanatic”—who found like-minded friends online, specifically Vishal Jha.
Mayank Rawat: was also arrested in Uttarakhand. The 21-year old is a BSc Chemistry student at Delhi University. His father is a subedar in the army and is currently posted in Jammu. The local police claim he hasn’t done much other than follow instructions:
“A WhatsApp chat contact of the arrested youth shared with him around six to seven links of the said app. He was asked by the contact to share the links to his Twitter timeline and he followed. He doesn’t seem to have any zealot bent.”
Niraj Bishnoi: was arrested by the Delhi police in Assam—and they claim he is the “the creator and main conspirator” in the Bulli Bai case. And they have his confession to prove it. The 20-year old—described as a “tech expert”—is pursuing a BTech in computer science in Bhopal. When the Mumbai police arrested the first three, he trolled them on Twitter using a fake handle: “You have arrested the wrong person, slumbai police. I am the creator of #BulliBaiApp.” And that’s what led the Delhi police to him. So not such a tech expert then. FYI: he too is described as highly reclusive—happiest online than in the real world.
Point to note: The evidence—found on his laptop—against Bishnoi appears to be most damning. It also included a lot of porn of a certain kind:
“He is a porn addict and he has also revealed it during interrogation about it. The data suggests that he has certain abnormal desires for women elder to him, from a certain age group, belonging to a certain community (Muslims).”
Aumkareshwar Thakur: Over the weekend, the Delhi police made the first and only arrest in the Sulli Deals case—after receiving information from Bishnoi. The 26-year old is the oldest of the lot—and has a Bachelors of Computer Applications. He currently works as a freelance web designer from home. Thakur is part of a Twitter group that came up with the idea for the app. He allegedly developed the code, while the other members contributed images. His family claims Thakur is being framed.
Big point to note: Thakur has extensive links to various Twitter groups that describe themselves as ‘Trads’—and offers the first clue of a vast underbelly of an informal alt-Right Hindu network:
“We have seen he was a member of many ‘trad’ groups on Telegram and Twitter, but the members are deleting these groups now. We have seen 7-8 boys who were part of the Tradmahasabha group. They all left the group and deleted their profiles. This was the main group. There was no hierarchy. All members are equally guilty of making the app. Thakur was the one who wrote the code. There were several discussions about Muslim women and their community.”
While the Hindu Right may look homogenous from the outside, there is a deep schism within their ranks. The young people arrested belong to a wing that call themselves Trads.
The Trads: The moniker is a shortened version of ‘tradition’—and these people are far more radical than the more visible BJP/Modi-supporting rightwing. They believe in an absolutist version of a Hindu rashtra based on the Manusmriti—where not just minorities, but also women and Dalits know their place. They are not interested in political strategy or accommodation—and care only about ideological purity:
“They consider the ideology of BJP, RSS and Savarkar as their biggest enemies. They have large groups on social media with many youngsters. They consider Shankaracharya of Dwarka and Puri as their gurus and are strongly against anyone who doesn’t agree with their extremist ideas. Their ideology is based on a rigid caste system and they believe in caste supremacy.”
Some trads glorify Sati, open defecation and even caste slavery. All of them portray Savarna Hindus as a race with the purest blood—and have little interest in issues like ‘ghar wapsi’ (conversion of Dalits back to Hinduism) etc.
Big point to note: Trads are not fans of Narendra Modi because a) he belongs to a backward caste, and b) he is “too soft” on minorities and Dalits: “They even refer to Modi as ‘Maulana Modi’ when he greets people on Eid or Christmas.” And they view the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak as ‘Raitas’.
The Raitas: Also spelt ‘Raaytas’, this is a pejorative word used by Trads to mock rightwingers who support the BJP/RSS. The label is a twisted pronunciation of rightwing—and is a play on the phrase ‘raita failana’ which means ‘to mess up’. Raitas are viewed as too moderate—with little to differentiate them from liberals. As one expert puts it: “Raitas are Hindutvavadi, political and aware Hindus from the mainstream.” They care about winning elections with the Dalit vote, being seen as progressive on women’s issues etc. In the view of Raitas, a Bulli Bai or Sulli Deal app is embarrassing and hurts the Hindutva cause. And some of the biggest battles between the two sides have been over issues of caste.
Big point to note: Unlike ‘Raitas’—who are easy to identify, more organised and have clear institutional and party loyalties—Trads are a loosely organised subculture:
“What distinguishes this alt-right movement from the organised hate crime nexus is its self-sustaining and organic nature. This is a movement in which people willingly participate for association, irrespective of what they may gain or lose. In that sense, it is an online army of individuals deeply committed to the movement.”
More importantly this: They may pose a bigger threat:
“This is a loose ecosystem, an organic pipeline directing ordinary Hindu youth into radical hate speech. They could be much more dangerous than the organised lynch mobs and militant Hindutva groups, because fundamentally, for these groups, hatred and genocidal calls to action are considered fun.”
Their sense of “fun” is truly vile—and deploys memes to horrific effect. For example, this manipulated image of a dead Dalit child:
The bottomline: The arrests have turned the spotlight on a growing alt-Right movement across the country—that is every bit as frightening as the Nazi groups in the West. Today, these young people are making apps and memes. It isn’t hard to imagine that some of them may decide to take more direct action in the future. A ‘lone wolf’ attack, perhaps? Or maybe a small gang of vigilantes who decide to teach Muslims or Dalits a lesson? We should all be worried.
Newslaundry and The Print profile Shweta Singh. The Print has the most details on Niraj Bishnoi. The Wire has the most detailed reporting on the Trads—while NewsLaundry looks at whether those arrested are being mobilised by invisible, more powerful others. MoneyControl and Mint look at GitHub’s responsibility in the creation of these apps.
Related reads: ICYMI, The Wire did a two-year investigation into an app used by the BJP—called Tekfog. Quartz has more on its connection to ShareChat—a social media platform funded in part by Twitter. Also: This Hindustan Times investigation into hate speech on ShareChat. Why this is relevant: a majority of posts posted via Tek Fog to ShareChat could be classified as “hate speech.”
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