Who Is Rhiya Ahir? The Model Who Went Viral for Blocking a Police Van During the NEET Paper Leak Protest

Wearing an outsized hoodie and cap towards the drizzle, she stood her floor, palms pressed towards the car, as a crowd gathered behind her, chanting slogans criticising the federal government for leaning on police energy at any time when it felt threatened.

DISCLAIMER: This text is predicated on data from the general public area and/or the consultants we spoke to.

The footage, shared extensively by the Cockroach Janata Occasion (CJP), the group behind the July 20 march on Parliament, unfold quickly throughout social media. The caption learn, “Our ladies are at least boys,” a dialogue from the Bollywood film Dangal. Ahir later shared her personal footage of the incident on Instagram, captioning it with a taunt directed at police.

In her personal phrases

Ahir has described the second as instinctive moderately than deliberate. Chatting with Hindustan Instances, she stated the protesters’ chants had been what drew her in, and that she felt she couldn’t allow them to be taken away. She has additionally acknowledged that her outward composure didn’t match how she felt internally, admitting that she was shaking despite standing firm.

Gulf Information reported that Ahir’s worry centred on the chance that the detained protesters may face formal fees if pushed off, and that she felt an obligation as a citizen to intervene moderately than watch it occur. She has additionally stated, per the identical account, that police tried to inch the van ahead in the course of the standoff with out success, and that she held her place till the detainees had been launched.

Importantly, Ahir clarified to NDTV that she was not herself a NEET aspirant however her involvement, she stated, got here out of solidarity with college students demanding transparency within the examination course of, not any private stake within the examination.

In different movies circulating from earlier than and after the protest, Ahir has poked enjoyable on the political theatre surrounding the demonstrations and defined that she selected her outfit, hoodie and hat included, with the sensible dangers of a confrontation in thoughts.

From runway to resistance

Earlier than this week, Ahir was recognized much less for activism than for her work in Mumbai’s style and leisure circuit. Gulf Information describes her as a mannequin, actor and entrepreneur who has appeared in music movies — most lately Sumit Patwari’s ‘Dilbara’ — in addition to a brief social drama movie, and who additionally runs a clothes label. She has near a lakh followers on Instagram.

That present public profile, mixed with the uncooked visible energy of 1 lady blocking a police car by hand, is basically why the clip discovered such an unlimited viewers so rapidly.

Why the story retains rising

Response on-line has been divided. Republic World famous that social media customers have been cut up, with some praising her as a “fearless” instance of Indian youth and others suggesting police ought to have responded extra firmly. That debate has solely added gasoline to the video’s unfold, and stored consideration fastened on the broader scholar motion demanding accountability over the alleged examination leak.

DISCLAIMER: This text is predicated on data from the general public area and/or the consultants we spoke to.