By Shruti Sunderraman

Earlier this week, singer and actress Suchitra Krishnamoorthi had tweeted her irritation at the azaan blasting off of loudspeakers at 4 45 a.m. in the morning. Unsurprisingly, this raked up a few leaves. But instead of expressing their disagreement, what do people on the internet do? They verbally abuse and slut-shame her. Krishnamoorthi was called a multiple number of things, the kindest of which was ‘slut’. 

But Krishnamoorthi is not one to hold back. In response, she filed a police complaint yesterday against her abusers at the D N Nagar police station after which four people have been booked. A senior police official told The Indian Express, “Based on her complaint, police registered a case under IPC sections 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 67 (a) (punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act), against four persons.”

Many, including actress Renuka Shahane and Krishnamoorthi’s ex-husband, filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor tweeted their support to her standing up to her abusers and slammed online misogyny.

The amount of people that disrespect women is DISGUSTING. Language used in their tweets just shows what type of low-lives they are! 🙁

— Anuj Radia (@TheAnujRadia) July 25, 2017

Trolling arguments is acceptable. But if @Twitter want to survive in India they have to stop such rampant disgusting sexual abuse @suchitrak https://t.co/pNEA0zq5SK

— Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) July 26, 2017

Disgusting! Hope you’ve made a police complaint @suchitrak These abusive trolls need to be put firmly behind bars!With you in solidarity. 😡 https://t.co/pVSivbrqix

— Renuka Shahane (@renukash) July 26, 2017

To  highlight the barrage of abuses that came her way,  Krishnamoorthi tweeted a collage of them. The very idea that there were enough of them to warrant a collage makes our skin crawl.

Look at these perverts! Feel sorry for my India -with this kind of attitude towards women its no wonder we’ve become rape capital of d world pic.twitter.com/Hteg0IXRM8

— Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 25, 2017

She also posted another picture of a fresh set of abuses with a screenshot.

heres another one. pathetic pic.twitter.com/SoVskX88eY

— Suchitra (@suchitrak) July 25, 2017

Pathetic, indeed.

Sonu Nigam had also expressed a similar opinion against being disturbed by the azaan. He was also heavily criticised. But nowhere was he slut-shamed for it.

Sonu Nigam dint get called a prostitute by the mullahs when he said he came home at 4am@suchitrak

— Blah (@I_yam_nendu) July 25, 2017

If slut-shaming women and abusing them is the only way one can have a nuanced argument, then there isn’t much of an argument at all. There’s just shame. Not to Krishnamoorthi or other women, but to abusers who hide being the safety of their desks.