A girl wearing a burqa and a hijab and holding a placard that read: “Mr Modi, I am Indulekha. Identify me by my dress?”
A non-Muslim, Indulekha made quite a statement in reply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said in Jharkhand last week that those behind the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act violence could be identified from their clothes.
She received several congratulatory messages. In fact, influenced by her, on 23 December in Kochi, Sreenath K came dressed in a long black cotton kurta, black dhoti, a kirpan in the kurta's pocket and a multi-coloured skull cap. In his hand, he also held a placard that said, “Identify me by my dress?”
However, Indulekha has also been flooded with trolls and threat messages.
Seventeen-year-old Indulekha is a first year law student at the Government Law College in Ernakulam, Kerala. She had participated in the 3-km protest march in the city organised by her college seniors along with 14 other colleges on Wednesday, 18 December.
Her friends had told her about actor Anaswara Rajan who had posted a picture of herself in a hijab with a similar message.
“But the interpretations made of my protest were nothing like I imagined. I got a lot of negative comments on social media. But the good part is that there were also a lot of comments defending me, all from people I had never met.”Indulekha to The News Minute
Over the past few days, she has been subject to a lot of name-calling. Responding to whether the trolls scared her, she said, “I am not scared. If we have our family with me, we don't have to fear at all,” reported EdexLive. However, she told in an interview to the media channel that her parents were worried after her photograph went viral.
Friends close to her said she wishes to stay silent and definitely doesn’t believe the message she tried to convey was wrong in any way.
Indulekha is not a member of any political party.
“I have my own clear politics. However, I do not like political parties. So, when I heard that the protest was not organised by any political party, I thought of going ahead and participating. I thought it will be amazing if a march like this becomes successful,” she told EdexLive.
Following the abuse, support has come pouring in for Indulekha.
“She's a kid who is not even 18 yet. Imagine her plight. She just started college and the first time she stood up for something, this happens. What more is needed to demotivate her further? Her parents are already worried now this adds to their distress,” tweeted her college senior Arya.
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