Columnist and BJP supporter Shefali Vaidya
Highlights
- Man threatens to attack columnist & BJP supporter Shefali Vaidya's child
- Sexual abuse, threats not exclusive domain of right wing, said Ms Vaidya
- Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi earlier reported threat of rape
Columnist and BJP supporter Shefali Vaidya has posted screenshots on Facebook and Twitter of a sickening comment by a man who threatened to attack her child.
"I have been subjected to threats, sexual abuses, assaults on my family and slander by frustrated Congress supporters for months now, just because I am a vocal supporter of the BJP," said Ms Vaidya in her Facebook post, attaching several screenshots of how she has been trolled and viciously attacked on social media.
Ms Vaidya's posts come amid a debate on Twitter over the police complaint of Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi that she was "threatened with 'rape and death like Nirbhaya' for just pointing out a BJP spokesperson's use of innuendo and insinuation to silence me on a TV debate".
In a blog post on NDTV.com, Ms Chaturvedi wrote, "So if being a woman wasn't bad enough to be on these platforms, it is worse to be an opinionated woman from a differing ideology. However if such people and official and unofficial supporters of right wing think they can intimidate me, I am sorry, you have dialed a wrong number here."
About the extreme trolling she has faced, Ms Vaidya said on twitter:
"Some guy using a fake ID even threatened to hurt my child! This is how low they stoop," the columnist said.
On Facebook, she wrote, "A threat of rape and murder is repugnant and NO woman, I repeat, NO woman regardless of her political inclination should be subjected to it. I am sure there are abusive and sick trolls who claim to support the BJP, and they need to be exposed and punished. But sexual abuse, threats and slander is NOT an exclusive domain of the 'right wing' as our media would like you to believe," said Ms Vaidya in her post.