Bengaluru: Amulya Leona, the 19-year-old student who stunned people at a protest rally in Bengaluru by shouting pro-Pakistan slogans last night, has sent media and police personnel scrambling to find out her antecedents. After scouring her Facebook and Twitter profile, few could make sense of the development.
Why did she raise such a slogan? Is she anti-Indian/pro-Pakistan or whatever?
Amulya Leona’s Facebook profile amply makes clear that she holds strong political views similar to hundreds of young women protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act or the National Register of Citizens.
One of her Facebook posts reads, “I will not become a citizen of another country as I say zindabad to any other nation. I am an Indian citizen. It is my duty to respect my nation and work towards the welfare of the people of my country.”
In this Facebook update, she goes on to post about raising slogans of ‘Zindabad’ to every nation. She starts by saying ‘Hindustan Zindabad’, then says Zinbabad to Pakistan and later takes the names of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, China and Bhutan.
She says that whichever the nation is, she would like to raise a zindabad slogan to it.
She explains that a nation is nothing but its people. Whichever governments serves the people, they deserved a zindabad, she says.
In her speech at Freedom Park last night, Amulya Leona took the organisers by surprise by launching off in a pro-Pakistan vein. Upon being given the mike, she tried to rouse the audience, saying "Awaaz do!" and reeled off pro-Pakistan slogans in quick succession: "Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad."
The slogans stunned the people on the dais. Upon hearing the words ‘Pakistan Zindabad’, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi and others rushed to snatch away the mike from her. To them Amulya says in Hindi, “You have given me the mike, so let me speak.”
Later she is heard saying “Hindustan Zindabad.”
However, even before she completes her sentence, she was taken away.
Soon after videos of the Freedom Park incident surfaced on Twitter and Facebook, trolls lost no time in getting at her. The slurs spanned the whole gamut of troll behaviour: misogyny, sexual innuendo, and death threats.
While one Facebook user commented "Kill her", other says "send her to Pakistan". "You bloody commie", another one says. One user even goes say "Hey terrorist, hope you liked sleeping with Imran Khan". Such comments are spread throughout her timeline and in her older posts too.
