Lois Sofia, who shouted 'fascist govt down, down' at Tuticorin airport, is a writer and a vocal RSS-BJP critic

Lois Sofia, a Tamil Nadu student who was arrested at the Tuticorin airport on Monday for raising 'anti-government slogans' in front of Tamil Nadu BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, has been an active left-wing voice on social media. The girl, who is a doctoral student of Physics at the University of Montreal in Canada, had covered the recent Sterlite issue and the protests against Chennai-Salem eight-lane highway project extensively, as a writer. As per her account, when she saw that Tamilisai was on board her flight, she tweeted that she wondered if she will be “kicked off the flight” if she shouts “Modi-BJP-RSS’ fascist government, down, down”. The tweet, however, has now been deleted from her account. [caption id=“attachment_5108831” align=“alignnone” width=“591”] Screenshot of the tweet as it appeared on Sofia’s Twitter account, @Red_Pastures[/caption] Sofia, who belongs to Thoothukudi, is a close kin of advocate Athisayakumar, who was one of the leading activists in the anti-Sterlite movement, Deccan Chronicle reported. She has was arrested from the airport by the Pudukottai Police and has been sent to a 15-day juridical custody. A case under IPC sections 290 (creating public nuisance), 505 (1)(b) for causing fear to the public in the flight and at the airport and under section 75 of the Madras City police act, has been filed against her. However, the police did not rule out the possibility of her act being “politically motivated”. According to the Deccan Chronicle report, the police suspects that as she is a Dalit (from Devendra Kula Vellala community), her act might have been a ploy to direct Dalit group anger against the BJP in the state. This angle was put forth by the police as the incident happened while the BJP chief was on her way to participate in a party function at Tenkasi, where around t 1,000 Dalits from various parties were to gather. Meanwhile, Sofia’s twitter activity reveals that she has been a vocal critic of the Central government and had even tweeted in solidarity against the recent arrest of five activists by the Pune Police. Apart from criticising the state police and government for its atrocities and collective failure during the Sterlite protests, Sofia has also raised voice for Dalit rights and women safety. She also supported student activist Valarmathi, who had alleged molestation by a cop in plain clothes, but was branded as a “Naxal-sympathiser” instead.