Photo: Maktoob
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Vikram Singh from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh has lodged a complaint over what he described as false and defamatory content circulating about him and his family on social media.
Media reports quoted Singh as saying that he had earlier received extortion calls and, after he chose not to respond to them, was threatened. He alleged that this was followed by the circulation of fabricated claims about him and his family online.
The complaint relates to the online harassment faced by his daughter, Yashaswinee Raje Singh, after she expressed support for the Palestinian cause on social media. Her posts were subsequently amplified by Hindu right-wing accounts, leading to sustained trolling.
Yashaswinee Raje Singh, a social media influencer, is known for using her platform to comment on international issues. She has spoken in support of Palestine, citing what she described as the genocide of Palestinians over the past two years.
Vikram Singh, a former BJP MLA from Fatehpur, continues to be associated with the party, though he no longer holds an elected position.
The controversy reportedly began after a Hindu right-wing social media page circulated a post alleging a mismatch between Singh’s public image as a traditional and conservative politician and his daughter’s personal life. The post claimed that she had been sent abroad for higher education, was allegedly in a relationship with a Pakistani man and had consumed beef.
Following this, her personal information and photographs were widely shared by Hindutva-linked accounts. Reports said the content sought to highlight what was projected as a contrast between Singh’s political stance and his family’s lifestyle choices. As the online campaign intensified, Yashaswinee Raje Singh began receiving rape and death threats over her views, after which she addressed the harassment in a statement shared on her Instagram account.
“Over the last two weeks, I’ve been the target of a coordinated online attack. My publicly available Instagram account has been trawled, screenshots have been circulated, lies have been invented, and baseless insinuations have been deliberately amplified – all to malign my character and silence my speech. Watching a certain ecosystem conduct forensic audits of my instagram account has been fascinating… in a deeply unserious way…,” she wrote.
She also said that false claims were circulated about her personal relationships, which she said prompted several right-wing social media accounts to issue rape threats. She noted that such abuse reflects a pattern commonly directed at those who speak out on issues affecting minorities and systematically marginalised communities, Maktoob Media reported.
“The playbook is predictable: when women speak about politics, ideas rarely matter. Instead, our lives are put on trial. Shame is deployed, lies are manufactured, and every personal choice is treated like evidence of moral failure. I have faced it before. I know it well. Let me be unequivocal: I am not ashamed. I do not owe moral obedience, explanations or compliance to anyone invested in silencing me. Shame may be their weapon of choice. but it cannot touch my convictions, my integrity, or my resolve…,” she wrote.
Taking a strong stance, she wrote: “Palestine belongs to Palestinians. Squashing all the rumours and shutting down people.”
Responding to one such comment, Singh wrote on X: “Global institutional attract global talent. I have friends from (Pakistan), same as I do from a 100 other countries. friendships do not become “links” because your brain is irreparably broken by jingoism.”
The controversy has continued to simmer, with observers saying it has once again drawn attention to questions around the role of BJP leaders in promoting hate-driven, Islamophobic or caste-based rhetoric, even as their own children publicly engage with international and humanitarian issues.
The episode has also revived focus on an earlier incident from August 2025, when a large-scale demolition was carried out after saffron-clad activists entered a 200-year-old maqbara and damaged two mazars, claiming that the structure had originally been a temple that was demolished by Muslim rulers and later converted into a tomb.
Police accounts said that a large group of BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) workers gathered near the tomb, breached police barricades and entered the mausoleum of Nawab Abdus Samad, where they performed aarti and puja.
Media reports said the group was led by district BJP president Mukhlal Pal and former MLA Vikram Singh, and that slogans and religious verses, including the Hanuman Chalisa, were recited inside the tomb.
Videos that later circulated on social media were reported to show some of the activists vandalising the mazars with stones and lathis.