Nava J Thakuria
Guwahati: Expressing utter dismay over the imposition of communal colour to the Bulli Bai episode by a section of organisations and media outlets, Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) urges everyone to wait
for logical conclusion of the online application that allegedly put a number of celebrity women on auction.
It may be mentioned that over a hundred women, largely Muslim personalities including journalists, were listed with doctored photographs in the Bulli Bai app as readied for online selling as maids in the first week of January 2022. Lately however, the app was closed down by the concerned authority.
Expressing shock over the matter, a number of women activists filed police complaints in New Delhi and Mumbai under various sections of laws dealing with gender bias, sexual harassment, religious enmity,
etc. Till date, four persons have been arrested suspecting their involvement in the crime by the police from different places including one from Jorhat in Assam.
All the detained are reportedly students including a young lady and there is no such fact emerging out of the probe that they got involved with the crime with no religious agendas with probable instigation from the Hindu nationalists. PPFA demands a fair probe into the episode and urges all concerned not to pollute the atmosphere with communal discourses.
Mentionable is that Neeraj Bishnoi, a student of computer engineering, who was lately arrested from Jorhat has been suspected to be the mastermind behind the BulliBai app, developed on the hosting platform GitHub. Initial reports suggest that Neeraj (who actually hails from Rajasthan) has distorted sexual orientations and no way connected to any Hindu nationalist outfit.
“The culprits should be punished under the law. But there is no logic in nurturing the Hindutva angle for the benefit of international media markets as the app targeted mostly Muslim women. The conscious
citizens of Bharat should keep an eye over those anti-national elements, so that they cannot hatch a conspiracy taking advantage of the episode,” said a PPFA statement issued to the media.