Recently, Indian police took a girl from the northern state, Uttarakhand, in custody under the suspicion of involvement in the Bulli Bai app. The officials arrested the 18-years-old for allegedly putting over 100 Muslim women for sale. The bizarre application shared pictures of the women and mentioned that all of them were on sale. According to reports, the police suspect that the girl is the mastermind behind creating the app. Last year, it was Sulli Deals portraying the same concept. Both platforms’ names (Bulli and Sulli) are the terms used by Hindu extremists to degrade Muslim women.
Bulli Bai App Case Investigation
The investigation found out that the Bulli Bai app was hosted on the GitHub web platform, which was instantly taken down due to the outrage and public’s furious reactions. Also, before taking the girl, Shweta Singh, into remand, the police arrested a 21-year-old engineering student, Vishal Kumar and a few more individuals under the same suspicion. Maharashtra’s junior home minister, Satej Patel, stated before the media that authorities and police would investigate the matter until the case was solved. Moreover, the police have opened an investigation in three different states since multiple targeted women filed complaints against the activity. Reportedly, the app mainly targeted Muslim women as many prominent photos of Muslim activists and journalists were uploaded on it without consent. They were explicitly put on sale for a fake auction. No charges have been confirmed, but the inquiry is still under process.
The Purpose Is to Humiliate Muslim Women
The Bulli Bai app isn’t the only one to target Muslim women. In fact, this is the second time an application is being used to humiliate women belonging to the Islamic religion. Last year, Sulli deals app was used to serve a similar purpose. More than 80 women’s pictures roamed the site, and the caption said “deals of the day”. Both apps were not dealing with the actual selling of women. Creating and making such apps was only meant to humiliate Muslim girls.
Moreover, people are connecting both applications as many opined that police and authorities were negligent enough to let this happen again. The lawmaker, Priyanka Chaturvedi, posted on social media that the reason behind the creation of Bulli Bai was that no one had punished the criminal mastermind who developed the Sulli application.
Victims Demanding Justice
The fake auction on the Bulli Bai app resulted in anger as many posted on social media about the disgusting attempt to degrade women.
Congress social media team’s national convenor, Hasiba Amin, tweeted about her harassment by addressing Delhi police. She mentioned that this had happened, and she had also lodged an FIR last year, but sadly no one took severe legal action against the culprits. She sarcastically said, “good job protecting women”, and asked if the police were going to do anything about the latest event or not. Amin also shared the deleted Bulli Bai post harassing her.
Quratulain Rehbar, a freelance journalist who was a Sulli deals victim, also took the matter on Twitter since she was also a victim of Sulli deals. Rehbar tweeted about how Muslim women have been targeted by the ones spreading and favouring Islamophobia. The tweet said the auction was not about Indians and Pakistanis but Muslims in particular.
How Bulli Bai is a Dangerous Precedent for Indian Youth?
As per the previous incidents based on hatred against the Muslim community in India, online portals like the Bulli Bai app and Sulli deals are just another way to fuel extremism among them. Many extremists might get an idea to overpower the community through vulgar and dangerous means. Like last year, a gym trainer Asif Khan was brutally murdered just because he refused to chant Jay Shree Ram. Digital products are being used by Hindu extremists to provoke hatred against Muslims. The applications and websites will probably become a weapon against the community.
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