- Sonia Sehrawat, an RAF officer, came to national spotlight with a comment on Cockroach Janta Party
- She posted a controversial Instagram story calling student protesters "cockroaches," sparking outrage
- Service rules prohibit such personal political comments and use of uniform photos on social media
Sonia Sehrawat, an officer from the Rapid Action Force which specialises in riot and crowd control, is, in internet speak, viral.
With over 6 lakh followers, the officer from Haryana is already a huge hit on Instagram.
The same Instagram catapulted her to national spotlight this week when she posted a story about the Cockroach Janta Party, which has been leading the student protests seeking the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the NEET paper leak.
On Monday, the students led a march on Parliament. The protests snowballed after police fired tear gas and baton-charged tens of thousands of demonstrators on the opening day of the Monsoon Session.
The officer, an Assistant Commandant in the RAF which is a specialised wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who was stationed there as part of the riot control team, made her thoughts about the protests public in an Instagram story.
"Can't fix themselves and they wanna fix the country," she shared a story with an image of a cockroach, apparently dead.
As outrage grew, the officer pulled down the story.
"ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING. This RAF official actually sees the peaceful protesters as cockroaches and thinks that the brutality of the police was justified because of that," the CJP said on X and then slipped in a dig.
"But you see, we are cockroaches. And cockroaches never die!" the CJP added.
The service rules advise officers against the use of "ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or engaging in any conduct that would not be accepted as a government servant". The officer appears to have violated that rule.
"Making political comments such as this one, even from a personal account when the personnel is personally involved in the duties, should amount to a disciplinary issue. Let's see if the top brass take cognisance and take a tough stance on it," ThePrint, a digital news platform, reported quoting an unnamed officer.
The service rules say the officers are advised against using profile photos in uniform on personal platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp. The officer's Instagram handle goes by the name '3star_Sonia' with her profile picture in service uniform.
The officer's latest post came 23 hours ago.
Posing in a black crop top and a canary skirt, she captioned the post "Seerat", which loosely translates to inner beauty.
A cursory look at her Instagram profile shows her in various avatars: visiting temples, as a retro romantic, a saree series, riding bikes, meeting young students, exercising, among others.
In one of the posts, she, dressed in a midnight navy tank top and black denims, is swaying on a beach with a booming "Laila" soundtrack from Shah Rukh Khan's 'Raees' serving as background score.
"This freedom is costly but smile is priceless. So shed the tears and keep spreading happiness (sic),' she captioned the post on July 16.
In another post on July 14, she is seen walking through a market and says that shopkeepers are referring to her as "foreigner tourist".
"Wear your attitude with pride, own it like a loaded message," says another post.
There are also posts about Kalyug, Satyug and Lord Shiva.
Her posts have generated a lot of chatter, and have also become the subject of discussion among officers and personnel of the RAF and CRPF.
"These posts are creating a bad name for the forces. We are a professional unit and we have the mandate of crowd control and handle riot-like situations," ThePrint, quoting a CRPF officer, reported.
Speaking on the Win Life Like a Warrior podcast, Sonia Sehrawat recalled sustaining a severe injury during her training that required 52 stitches. She recovered and completed the training programme, describing the incident as a defining moment in her career.
In an interview to NDTV, the officer claimed that "rowdy individuals" and "anti-social elements" had gathered at the student protest in Jantar Mantar.
"There was a large gathering of students and student protesters, but amidst them were various rowdy individuals and members of a specific political party. Today, they can be described as anti-social elements; they threw stones, shoes, and glass bottles at us," she, with her arm in a cast, told NDTV.
She also claimed that the protesters "scratched even with nails", showing the mark on her neck.
"I got injured while trying to save the women," she said, explaining her hand injury.
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