Even as online outrage against the Bulli Bai app continues, there's a section of people who are unable to comprehend why ¡®Bulli Bai¡¯ is making headlines and what¡¯s the actual crime.
Some are going as far as justifying it on social media, saying the app was created "just for fun". As a platform, social media is extremely overwhelming. While it empowers people through a democratic platform, it also bullies you into silence. It is also a platform that is vulnerable to abuse and harassment.
Women who found themselves listed on the Bulli Bai app on GitHub are putting up a fight for justice. So far, police have also arrested an 18-year-old Shweta Singh and a 21-year-old Vishal.
However, amidst all this what remains absent is the criticism from top women leaders of the country.
While some women politicians have raised their voices and are vocal against online harassment, none of them are from the ruling Centre. Their silence remains deafening.
Countless Muslim women found their pictures on an application named ¡°Sulli Deals¡± on the open-source platform Github. When an individual opens the app, a photo of any of these women is randomly generated and offers the viewer their ¡®Sulli deal of the day¡¯¨C which is supposed to hint at the fact that these women are available to satisfy a man¡¯s needs.
Responding to a query, the Union Minister of Women and Child Development¡¯s office wrote to Rajya Sabha reiterating the FIR filed against the Sulli Deals app by the Delhi Police on July 7, 2021.
The letter from Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani¡¯s office discussed the fact that as state subjects are included in the seventh schedule of the Indian Constitution, the responsibility of maintaining law and order falls on the state government. As such, it is mentioned that protection of life and property, including taking action against cybercrimes like Github¡¯s Sulli deals scandal, falls on the law enforcement agencies headed by the state government.
The letter from Irani¡¯s office remarks that the Central Government takes cognizance of issues women deal with and hence in connection with cyber crimes has launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. However, the letter also said the conversion of the same into FIR¡¯s and subsequent action is to be taken care of by competent state authorities.
Sulla or Sulli is a derogatory term used to refer to Muslims.?
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had sought to engage Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani in a gender issue, asking Irani to explain her silence in what is called the "sulli deals" controversy.?
Chaturvedi question to Irani: Why has the Minister not publicly condemned the incident and why have investigations remained at a standstill in the case despite two different FIRs having separately been filed by the Delhi and the UP police sixty days ago? "There are some issues that should rise above politics. More so for an individual who holds a constitutional position of heading the ministry of women's and child development, Chaturvedi said.?
Several FIRs were filed in the case but no investigation was made, which only shows the intent of the state.
No arrests were made in the Sulli Deals case, which targeted minority women. The inaction eventually boldened the motives of the perpetrators and led to the creation of the Bulli Bai app, which again targeted Muslim women and put their pictures, obtained without consent, up for auction.
The silence of women ministers on such misogynistic apps and acts of depravity is questionable.?
So far, only a handful of women ministers including Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, have openly spoken in support of the women who found themselves listed on the Bulli Bai app.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is among the prominent politicians who have urged people to raise their voices against the insult of women and communal hatred and said it was time to speak up against the menace.
Gandhi made these comments on Twitter amid outrage by netizens and women rights groups over the dodgy 'Bulli Bai' app that has listed Muslim women for "auction".
"The insult of women and communal hatred will stop only when we stand against it in one voice. The year has changed, the situation should also change. It is time to speak up," Gandhi tweeted using the hashtag 'no fear'.
Priyanka Gandhi also tweeted in support of targeted women and demanded action against the perpetrators without mentioning the app in her tweet in Hindi.
DCW chief Swati Maliwal also tweeted in support of Muslim women and questioned the inaction and apathy over the Sulli Deals case.?
Though some headways are made in the Bulli Bai case, the smear campaign is an organised activity and cannot be seen as ordinary cybercrime.
Cyberspace has been proliferated by perpetrators to commit crimes against women and has become a haven for perverts and misogynistic and Hindutva brigade offenders.
Both Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai not only reflect a narrow attitude towards women but also a hostile and degrading attitude towards Muslim women.
These acts are inspired by the toxic ecosystem and hatred towards Muslims and lack of action only encourages them and others.
For now, the starting point could be to speak against such acts of perversion and take immediate action. After all, isn't it "Beti Bachao"?
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