Bhumi Pednekar Condemns Rape, Death Threats Against Female CJP Protester, Calls Online Abuse ‘Unacceptable’
Actress Bhumi Pednekar has condemned the rape and death threats allegedly directed at a young woman who took part in the CJP-led protests, calling the abuse “unacceptable” and asking people to stop targeting women over their opinions.
Pednekar posted a video on Monday after coming across an interview with the protester. She said the young woman looked shaken by the backlash that followed.
“I saw a video on the internet where a young girl, who was a part of the protest, was giving an interview and she looked visibly broken and shaken. Her video went viral and since then she has been getting non-stop rape threats and death threats. Not just her, her mother and her family are also getting them and that is unacceptable,” Pednekar said.
She argued that disagreement should never tip into intimidation, especially against women. “We cannot bully a young girl. We cannot put a psychosis in a young girl’s mind because we disagree with her opinion. As women, we face a lot of harassment,” she said.
Pednekar also spoke about her own brushes with online abuse as a public figure, saying it leaves a mark that doesn’t go away quickly. “And as a public figure, I have gone through this experience and I cannot tell you how much it has a deep lasting impact on someone’s mental health. We all just want one thing that the country should progress, the country should prosper and by being united, if we keep the right things in the right way, then we will see the right change. I just want to leave this thought behind,” she said.
She captioned the post: “Rape and death threats are unacceptable. Aggression is unacceptable. Let’s stop all this.”
Earlier Remarks Sparked Debate
This isn’t Pednekar’s first comment on the protests. Days earlier, she’d faced backlash over remarks about the language used during the CJP demonstrations at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, where students had been demanding action over the NEET-UG paper leak and the resignation of the education minister.
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In an Instagram video, she’d questioned the abusive slogans aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi in viral protest clips and called for civility. That drew criticism from users who felt she’d skipped over the alleged police action against protesters during the July 20 clashes, which reportedly left several students injured.
Modi later said no charges would be filed over the abusive remarks made against him during the protests.