Is the Bulli Bai App Sulli Deals 2.0? Were these really apps? How are open tech platforms like GitHub misused for abominated content?
If you have not formed your opinion already about how toxic the trend of Sulli Deals or Bulli Bai App is, it’s time you give it a thought. In simple words, it is a platform created by a group of youngsters to sell Muslim Women. The victims are the women who voice out their opinions, such as activists, politicians and journalists of any age. The women are auctioned for sale.
What Was Sulli Deals?
To begin with, the name “Sulli” is a derogatory word used against Muslim women in India. As the name states, Sulli Deals was created on GitHub in July 2021. It was a tech tool that was created with a code with the sole objective to harass and demoralise Muslim women.
Its makers sourced pictures of the victims from different social media platforms without their consent and attached a price tag to them to be sold again and again. These images were morphed and used inappropriately. Although there were alarms raised about the objectionable content, there was no action taken against the makers of Sulli Deals until recently.
Thankfully, Aumkareshwar Thakur, the alleged creator of Sulli Deals, was arrested by the Delhi police on 9 January, 2021. Investigation revealed that he had joined a group on Twitter called the “Trade Mahasabha” in January last year and all detrimental activities were carried out through his Twitter handle named @gangescion, mainly to conspire and troll Muslim women.
An Extension Of Sulli Delas — The Bulli Bai App
In continuation, the Bulli Bai App appeared. The police’s inaction to catch the culprits of the Sulli Deals allowed for the creation of another offensive tool. Created in November 2021 to auction Muslim women online, it’s full of malignant and hateful content. Though the name says “app”, it’s not an app that can be downloaded; it’s an executable code. Till now, altogether, four arrests have been made.
Firstly, the sentiment of an Indian Muslim is wounded here. Islamophobia in India is spreading at an alarming rate against the country’s secular culture. In the heat of elections, such agendas are carried out more freely than before. The free pass given to the Hindutva based ideology has given courage to anyone with hatred to plot and spread hostility.
This time, miscreants resorted to Muslim women to send out a message of “stay in line”.
Additionally, the nasty speeches made by Yogi Adityanath have not helped the situation any better. The popular Yogism by Uttar Pradesh CM is explicitly dividing the citizenry based on religious identities. His controversial remarks on the 80:20 divide between his supporters and the “terrorists” stirred already existing religious polarisation.
Tagging the non-Yogi supporter as a “terrorist” is a dangerous trend. In other incidents where people are made to take the oath to stand against Muslims is surprisingly unsettling. The clear-cut divide and rule strategy by the political party is harming the secular thread of the country.
With a ray of hope of Acche Din for my India, I ponder over these tough questions as a young Indian Muslim woman.
How is it even a game for them? Has it become so easy to provoke a communal divide? Will Indian political parties ever run election manifestos based only on developmental policies? When will this mixing of religion with politics stop in India? Does the striving yet optimistic Indian youth have the mental competence to look beyond all these malign ideologies?
To conclude, I take the help of Ghalib’s couplet on “Appearances and Reality” and the translation from Thinking With Ghalib, poetry for a new generation by Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole.
ہیں کواکب کچھ نظر آتے ہیں کچھ،
دیتے ہیں دھوکا یہ بازی گر کھلاहैं कवाकिब कुछ नजर आते हैं कुछ
देते हैं धोका यह बाज़ीगर खुला“The stars are one thing and appear another
These tricksters fool us openly” – Mirza Ghalib.