Sushma Swaraj Abused Online Over Inter-Faith Couple Passport Issue, No Statement From BJP
|Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on June 24 said on Twitter that while she was abroad, she received a wide range of hateful and abusing tweets regarding the Tanvi Seth passport issue.
The wide range of abuses came after ‘Hindu extremists’ who blamed her for keeping mum on the transfer of Officer Vikas Mishra, who allegedly harassed the inter-faith couple. In a sarcastic tweet, Swaraj wrote that she was ‘honoured’ to be on the receiving end of the abuses.
I was out of India from 17th to 23rd June 2018. I do not know what happened in my absence. However, I am honoured with some tweets. I am sharing them with you. So I have liked them.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) June 24, 2018
Tanvi Seth and Mohammed Anas Siddique got married in 2007 in Lucknow and are parents to a 6-year-old daughter. Tanvi applied for a fresh passport on June 19 and her husband applied for a reissue. They took an appointment for June 20 at the Regional Passport Office at Ratan Square in Lucknow.
The accused officer, Vikas Mishra allegedly asked Tanvi why she had kept her maiden name even after so many years of marriage. He allegedly shouted, humiliated and insulted Seth. The abuse did not end there, her husband was further told that if he wanted to get his application approved, he would have to take pheras (a Hindu ritual of going around the sacred fire during marriage). He further asked him to convert to Hinduism.
Abusive tweets
Twitteratis had a varied range of response. Some demanded that Vikas Mishra, the accused be brought back immediately, others said that this was the Centre’s way of doing appeasement politics. They abused her, told her that she would only support ‘Pakistanis’ and also challenged her to resign.
#ISupportVikasMishra@SushmaSwaraj disabled page ratings on Facebook after users brought it down to 1.4 Star
But won't accept the mistake of blind appeasement.
Arrogance.@narendramodi @AmitShah pic.twitter.com/xTuMDKR8qg
— ShankhNaad (@ShankhNaad) June 23, 2018
Hail Sickularism!
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Shame on @SushmaSwaraj If She Has Iota of Shame Left Shld Resign Immediately, Appeasing Without Knowing the Truth & Conducting Probe Supporting Traitors & Punishing Honest Officer For Discharging His Duty Sincerely #IsupportVikasMishra#IStandWithVikasMishra pic.twitter.com/e2Wh5YzXjZ— JAY® (@Saffron_Rocks) June 22, 2018
Just unfollow the @SushmaSwaraj ,
We don't want appeasement politics , we are not working on ground for this .We don't want liberal VisaMata .
Let investigate the matter .#ISupportVikasMishra
— kapil Vats (@kapil73vats) June 23, 2018
The Logical Indian take
Online trolls mocking Sushma Swaraj is not very surprising. This kind of anti-Muslim, anti-logic, irrational and abusive behaviour has been encouraged by BJP leaders themselves as PM and other ministers follow few of these abusive trolls. Till now the people at the receiving end of the abuse were people from the opposition, or individuals who openly spoke against the ills of the current government.
The trolling has reached a certain level now, where party members are also not spared. Now, the abuses on social media have become a full-blown calamity, maligning anyone who goes against what they believe in. The sheer impunity these trolls enjoy is visible from the way a minister who is a very powerful person is being abused. It is time when these anonymous accounts that threat to kill, rape or destroy individuals for ideological differences are handled with strict action.
As the abuse is against a BJP minister, there is no comment from any of the BJP leaders till now.