(*Some names have been changed on request to protect identities of the subjects. The story also contains descriptions of hate speech.)
On 13 May, a rather peculiar controversy hit the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi. Its Rajya Sabha MP, Swati Maliwal, accused Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide, Bibhav Kumar, of assaulting her at the CM's residence.
What followed was a series of allegations and counter allegations with both Maliwal and Kumar registering police complaints against each other as several parts of India voted in phase four of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
This story, however, is not about what was unfolding in Delhi. It's about a housing society WhatsApp group — 1,400 km away — in Mumbai's Mulund where Delhi politics, especially this episode, was being hotly discussed.
"On 18 May, I saw a message in our society's WhatsApp group. It had a collage of images of journalists, lawyers, and civil society members, mostly critical of the government. The accompanying message questioned the silence of these journalists on the Swati Maliwal issue," Raman*, a member of this WhatsApp group told The Quint.
Despite being used to receiving a barrage of politically coloured forwards on this group, this particular message piqued Raman's interest. "This collage had an image of Vinod Dua," he said.
Dua, a veteran journalist and Padma Shri recipient, died in December 2021. "I pointed it out on the group. But to no avail, neither the admin nor the person who shared that message bothered to delete it," Raman added.