If you have been following the social media trends on those demanding ‘postponement’ of JEE and NEET exams, you’d have noticed how possible bots are hired to retweet tweets with particular hashtag. A lot of these tweet get thousands of retweets within seconds by Twitter handles which have mostly zero followers. One of the frontrunners of these hashtag campaigns has been one self-proclaimed ‘climate change and environment activist’, eight year old Licypriya Kangujam.
She claims that the account is managed by her guardian. Earlier it was her father, who is accused of an elaborate con of duping people and faking her ‘achievements’.
A Twitter user who goes by the handle @Being_Humor today posted a series of tweets, exposing the hashtag propaganda campaign that is being peddled by some perverse individuals to postpone the NEET examinations. Tagging the Delhi Police, the Twitter user had alleged that the protests against JEE/NEET examinations were not spontaneous and organic, but preplanned and coordinated.
@LicypriyaK will lead the protest, reportedly. pic.twitter.com/wxCIgltWjy
— mthn (Expert) (@Being_Humor) September 7, 2020
The thread, which comprises of screenshots of a certain Telegram group, alleges that members of the group, whose admin is a media troll Prerna Bakshi, is orchestrating a protest in Delhi, supposedly led by Licypriya Kangujam, to demand the deferment of the NEET examinations.
Prerna Bakshi is admin of the group which is planning protest, control it before they get violent. @DelhiPolice @DrRPNishank 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/9PgiHkfkRO
— mthn (spy) 😎 (@Being_Humor) September 7, 2020
In one of the screenshots shared above, a user named Prerna B, presumably Prerna Bakshi, is seen asking students in the group to call for a protest. When Prerna B did not receive the desirous response from the students, she vehemently emphasised the need to corner the government on the NEET issue. Bakshi, however, has denied being part of the social media group leading online mob.
Prerna Bakshi is admin of the group which is planning protest, control it before they get violent. @DelhiPolice @DrRPNishank 👍🏻 pic.twitter.com/9PgiHkfkRO
— mthn (spy) 😎 (@Being_Humor) September 7, 2020
In another screenshot, a message forwarded by another admin of the group–Sabbuma, asked students based out of Delhi to enlist themselves in a protest against the government’s decision of not postponing the NEET examination. The message read that the demonstration was going to be led by Licypriya.
In subsequent screenshots, in another Telegram group (or possibly name changed of current group), one Vedhika can be seen urging everyone to protest outside the PMO.
On her part, ‘Licypriya’ has been continuing to tweet provocative tweets to incite students to continue to protest.– Via DM.
— mthn (spy) 😎 (@Being_Humor) September 7, 2020
Protest planned in front of @PMOIndia office. pic.twitter.com/daxOonkYTo
In fact, she has been going on an inane rant on Twitter. She is 8 and her account is managed by her guardians for their own seemingly political agenda.Protest will not end by this NEET JEE. 1 protest will come every after 1 protest. Keep watching…
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) September 5, 2020
I’m just worried for underprivileged students from rural areas. How they’re managing life during this flood & COVID.
THIS IS REAL INEQUALITY & INJUSTICE.
FIGHT FOR UR RIGHTS!✊🏻
Privately students are abusing admins of Whatsapp groups such as Licypriya for organising protests against NEET exams
OpIndia contacted @Being_Humor to get into details of the allegations levelled by him. “The protests surrounding the JEE and NEET examinations were pre-organised. It has more to do with thrusting the country into chaos rather than highlighting alleged problems faced by the students with the current schedule. This was proved when propagandists like Licypriya were roped in for the protests. While some students had genuine issues concerning the organisation of the exams, the same was addressed by the government,” @Being_Humor said while talking to OpIndia.
“JEE aspirants, who have already appeared for the examinations, have appreciated the precautions taken by the government to ensure their safety. The students said that they had always wanted to appear for the examination as per schedule, but various Telegram groups have been created by admins like Prerna Bakshi, Licypriya and others, that seek to provoke and incite students to protest against the government and turn it into a student revolution. The same students were then abusing these admins in their private DMs,” he revealed.
Licypryan Kangujam, who ‘turned down’ PM Modi’s #SheInspiresUs honour faked her ‘achievements’ to stardom
Another controversial figure associated with the pre-organised campaign against the NEET examinations is the so-called ‘child activist’ Licypriya Kangujam. For some time now, Licypriya, who is aping another putative environmental activist Greta Thunberg, has been used as an instrument by leftists to throw the country into chaos.
The Manipuri ‘child activist’ shot to limelight in March this year for ‘turning down’ government of India’s ‘#SheInspiresUs’ movement honour on Twitter because she did not ‘want to be celebrated if PM Modi was not going to listen to her’.
Dear @narendramodi Ji,
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) March 6, 2020
Please don’t celebrate me if you are not going to listen my voice.
Thank you for selecting me amongst the inspiring women of the country under your initiative #SheInspiresUs. After thinking many times, I decided to turns down this honour. 🙏🏻
Jai Hind! pic.twitter.com/pjgi0TUdWa
The poor little girl has been subject to intense criticism online, because of the antics of the elders surrounding her. The criticism came after a guardian operating the verified Twitter account of Licypriya rejected Prime Minister Modi’s #SheInspiresUs movement because ‘she’ did not ‘want to be celebrated if PM Modi was not going to listen to her’. A storm was kicked up over the matter as the little girl, who presumably be more interested in toys and cartoons, found herself in the eye of that storm, with several journalists, opposition politicians, who perenially opposed PM Modi, hailed the 8-year-old girl for snubbing PM Modi.
However, it was later learned that the ‘achievements’ which had propelled Licypriya to international fame were all fake and her father is a conman.
While the mainstream media fell over itself to criticise the BJP government and PM Modi, none of them, despite having endless resources at their disposal, cared to identify if it was the 8-year-old girl running the Twitter account. The verified account of Licypriya is that of an adult exploiting Licypriya for his or her devious objectives.
Fake it like Licypriya
In April 2019, Licypriya claimed that she was on her way to UN headquarters in Geneva to address a ‘global UN session’ for ‘Disaster Risk Reduction’. The news was widely reported and Licypriya was congratulated on social media for ‘making India proud’. Except, it turned out to be fake. After Imphal Free Press uncovered that not only was she not invited to the UN but her father was also reported to be an alleged conman.
An investigation by Imphal Free Press (IFP) revealed that her entire ‘UN invite’ was a sham and a cooked up story by her father, Kangujam Kanarjit. IFP got suspicious over the news item since when they investigated the claims, the UN event showed that registration for delegates was still on and the names of speakers wasn’t confirmed yet. Hence, Licypriya’s claims that she is going to address the session was already on thin ice.
Further, Licypriya claimed to be working as a “Child Disaster Risks Reduction Advocate in International Youth Committee (IYC)” which did not have much internet presence. IFP got hold of a press release on the basis of which this news report was published. The press release was issued by IYC that had no specific address and the pin code corresponded to Safdarjung area in New Delhi.
The address was partial and IFP had little success in tracing. However, soon enough the search result showed that the IYC chairman was one Dr KK Singh. The Dr KK Singh was Kangujam Kanarjit, who IFP had exposed as a conman back in 2015. As per IFP, Kangujam Kanarjit, was a man behind the Global Youth Summit and World Youth Summit held at Imphal and is charged of cheating and fraud. He has been accused by several businessmen of duping them.
Kanarjit has been accused of cheating multiple people, with amounts as high as Rs 19 lakh. In 2015, he was arrested in Manipur with charges of criminal case number 176 of 2015 under Section 420 (Fraud), 324 (Assault) and 406 (Criminal breach of trust). As per investigation by IFP, a place he had rented in Porompat and carried out his clandestine activities under the Club 25 banner was allegedly sold to three different individuals without the knowledge of the real owner. Kanarjit was later released on an interim bail and has been an absconder since.
When the story of Licypriya attending UN event broke, eyebrows were raised as the source of her attending an event at UN in Geneva was routed through IYC, which has a history of fraud, dubious and shady work. Soon after the IFP investigation, the story quietly disappeared. Later, in a now deleted Facebook post, Licypriya wrote that she has ‘decided’ not to attend the UN event in Geneva. “Finally I decided not to attend the program in Geneva next month as I am completely in depression. Even my visa and flight tickets was ready. This is not the way to treat your “Ningol” [daughter]” she reportedly wrote on Facebook.
One of her ‘achievements’ she claims to have is one ‘Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Children Award’ and one ‘World Children Peace Prize’ and an ‘India Peace Prize’. In July 2019, she was awarded one “Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award” by one Munna Kumar, founder of Khwaab Foundation. No one has heard much about Munna Kumar either.
In September last year, Licypriya Kangujam had claimed she won some ‘World Children Peace Prize’ at Male.
Except, such an award does not exist.
Activism is the new buzzword and ‘climate change activist’ even more so. And children like Licypriya Kangujam, an eight-year-old ‘child activist’, are being used as a tool by her guardians for their personal motives.
