Ceasefire announcement triggered attacks on foreign secretary Vikram Misri, daughter, shows timeline analysis – Alt News

Just as tensions between India and Pakistan showed signs of easing out around May 10, Indian Right-wing trolls, already high on josh from the pitched keyboard battles they had been fighting, picked up a new enemy: Foreign secretary Vikram Misri and his family. His supposed fault: He made the announcement that India and Pakistan had reached an understanding of ceasefire after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes. Things came to such a passe that the seasoned diplomat had to make his X handle private.

No one from the BJP camp or the Union government, including external affairs minister S Jaishankar, has so far publicly condemned the targeted attacks.

Since the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7, Misri, a 1989-batch officer of the Indian foreign service, addressed four press conferences, some singularly, and some jointly with armed force officials. It is through these briefings that a nation on tenterhooks kept itself abreast of the latest updates about the escalating conflict. What stood out during these sessions were the composure and confidence with which he articulated India’s position on various military, diplomatic and strategic matters.

Misri’s diplomatic acumen and clarity of thought were on display when in the May 7 press briefing, for example, he used the words ‘measured, non-escalatory, proportionate, and responsible’, describing the nature of Operation Sindoor. Again, in the May 10 presser, he decimated Pakistan’s efforts to discredit the Indian government by noting that it might be a surprise to a Pakistani to see citizens criticising their own government. “That is the hallmark of an open and functioning democracy. Pakistan’s unfamiliarity with that should be unsurprising,” he observed, with a hint of a smile on his face.

One understands that such dignified professionalism in the face of adversities comes from experiences gathered during a long and distinguished career. Misri, who took charge as foreign secretary on July 15, 2024, had his early postings on the Pakistan desk of the Union ministry of external affairs and stints on the staff of two former foreign ministers, I K Gujral and Pranab Mukherjee. He has served as private secretary to three Prime Ministers, I K Gujral, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi. His international assignments include postings in Brussels, Tunis, Islamabad and Washington D.C. He was the deputy high commissioner in Sri Lanka, consul general in Munich, ambassador to Spain, Myanmar and China. From January 2022 to June 2024, he served as deputy in the NSA for strategic affairs before becoming India’s 35th foreign secretary.

One also understands that such distinctions matter little to the Right-wing trolls. The aplomb and equanimity maintained throughout by Misri did not, perhaps, impress the zealots whose hyper-nationalism often finds expression in memes with leaders breathing fire from laser eyes. And then, on May 10, Misri appeared in a press briefing to announce that India and Pakistan had agreed to stop all firing and military action. This is when the gloves came off and they decided to target Misri, as the timeline analysis later in this article will show.

What’s more horrifying, though perhaps predictable, was that the trolls targeted and doxxed his daughter, Didon, a lawyer based in the UK, for her humanitarian work for Rohingya Muslims and her occasional involvement with The Wire as a columnist. Her contact information was leaked online, and the Misris were labeled as gaddars or traitors.

The trolling and the targeted harassment got so toxic that the foreign secretary had to lock his X handle, restricting public view.

Tracing the Timeline of the Harassment

Alt News traced the online harassment of Didon to two primary accounts, one of which has since been withheld. X user @JayRNair was the first to dox her, back in December 2024, after Misri stated that India did not endorse former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s criticism of the interim government in Bangladesh. The user shared a screenshot of the news report of the statement alongside Didon’s history of humanitarian work. The user also shared a screenshot of Didon’s profile on her company website that clearly showed her phone number. ‘What is most shocking is when you realize what his daughter does. She gave legal assistance to Rohingyas, now in London’, read the tweet.

This account has now been disabled.

The aforementioned tweet was reshared a few times since the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7. There was one quote-tweet on May 8 and one more on May 9. However, we noticed that the tweet started getting more traction on the intervening night of May 10 and 11.

How did this happen? The second account that has consistently targeted Didon Misri is a user name Indian Kissinger (@kissingerspeaks). We also found two tweets from January and April 2025 that targeted Didon through subtle dog whistles.

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The same user started viciously trolling the foreign secretary and his family after the ceasefire announcement was made. One of the earliest tweets targeting Didon Misri in the present context was shared on May 10 at 11:18 pm, which garnered half a million views. “Vikram Misri has to be made the next Sujatha Singh. No wonder his daughter supports Rohingya’s! Shameless Man and Family”, wrote the user.

This user also quote-tweeted user @JayRNair’s tweet doxxing Didon Misri in the comments, which is when more and more people started to interact with it. We noticed a significant increase in quote-tweets of the doxxing tweet within minutes of user @kissingerspeaks’ dog whistle.

Despite @JayRNair’s X handle being blocked, we were able to ascertain the URL of the tweet in which Vikram Misri’s daughter was doxxed. The ‘URL:’ syntax is a way of viewing all of the X users who quote-tweeted the withheld tweet while it was still live. The tweet ID, which is a unique numeric identifier of a certain tweet, often found at the end of the URL of a tweet, is fed into the syntax. We used Twitter’s advanced filters, ‘since:’ and ‘until:’, to set a time frame which makes it easier to track the activity. We used epoch time to set the exact time and date. Therefore, we analysed quote tweets posted between Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 12:00 am (Epoch time: 1746556200) and Sunday, May 11, 2025, at 6:00 pm (Epoch time: 1746923400).

One quote-tweet read, “His daughter doesn’t care about this country but he comes out every now and then to inform us about ongoing affairs. India is f****d bcoz of these babus who can’t handle their families but try to convince entire nation. F*** u.”

What followed was a night of incessant trolling and harassment, especially targeted at Didon. While some people shared a picture of Misri’s family and labelled them traitors, some dug out a 2016 article that Didon had authored for The Wire, leaving many in the far-Right echo chamber displeased.

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One influential far-Right X handle that also dog-whistled against Didon Misri was Squint Neon, run by Chandan Kumar. In a now-deleted tweet, Chandan shared the link to The Wire article authored by Didon, which was enough for his army of followers to rush in while spewing hate.

Since the tweet has been deleted, it’s difficult to determine exactly when Chandan Kumar posted it. However, based on the timestamps of the quote tweets, it can be estimated that it was live by at least 12:52 am on May 11, if not earlier. We observed that the first quote tweet appeared at that time, followed by several others within minutes. We are also estimating that the tweet was deleted sometime just before 10 am on the morning of May 11.

Alt News has consistently flagged Chandan Kumar’s online activities and the problematic content that he shares as ‘Squint Neon’ and ‘Hindutva Knight’, which has repeatedly violated social media guidelines. After the admin came under police scrutiny, nearly 19,000 tweets were deleted from @TheSquind’s account. Originally created as a parody of The Quint in 2017, Squint Neon has been suspended multiple times but continues to resurface with new usernames, including @squintneon and @squintnayan, and now @thesquind, where it remains popular among the far-Right ecosystem.

In November last year, Kumar came under scrutiny after he doxxed journalist Rana Ayyub. Her number was made public by Kumar in a tweet at 1:15 am on November 8, following which she was bombarded with phone calls, video calls and lewd messages throughout the rest of the night. Previously, Kumar had come under fire for morphing an obscene image over that of a Thanthai Periyar statue. Alt News also uncovered, in an elaborate report, a deeply disturbing vigilantism that Kumar engages in wherein he ‘exposes’ Hindu women, including minors, who are involved with Muslim men. Chandan Kumar has previously been on the radar of law enforcement authorities, but has evaded arrest.

No Condemnation yet from the BJP Camp

No one from the BJP or the Union government, including external affairs minister S Jaishankar, has so far publicly condemned the targeted attacks against foreign secretary.

Opposition leaders like Assaduddin Owaisi from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen took to X to publicly back Misri. “…Our Civil Servants work under the Executive this must be remembered & they shouldn’t be blamed for the decisions taken by The Executive /or any Political leadership…”, he wrote.

Mr Vikram Misri is a decent and an Honest Hard working Diplomat working tirelessly for our Nation.
Our Civil Servants work under the Executive this must be remembered & they shouldn’t be blamed for the decisions taken by The Executive /or any Political leadership running Watan E… https://t.co/yfM3ygfiyt

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) May 11, 2025

Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav also tweeted his support for Vikram Misri, calling for an investigation into those who had trolled Misri.

निर्णय तो सरकार का होता है; किसी अधिकारी का नहीं।

ये बेहद संवेदनशील, निंदनीय, शर्मनाक, आपत्तिजनक और दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण बात है कि देश के एक बहुत बड़े अधिकारी और उसके परिवार के ख़िलाफ़ कुछ असामाजिक-आपराधिक तत्व सरेआम अपशब्दों की सारी सीमाएं तोड़ रहे हैं लेकिन उनके मान-सम्मान की रक्षा… pic.twitter.com/scIUETtX1e

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) May 11, 2025

CPI(M) Rajya Sabha leader John Brittas wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah calling for an urgent intervention against the malicious attacks against Misri and his family.

Requested the Hon’ble Home Minister to investigate the malicious and coordinated cyber attacks targeting the Foreign Secretary @VikramMisri and his family in the aftermath of the Indo-Pak ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/guG0IpRVQs

— John Brittas (@JohnBrittas) May 12, 2025

The National Commission for Women has also condemned the targeted harassment that Vikram Misri and Didon Misri had to undergo. In a statement issued by NCW Chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar, the panel denounced the sharing of the young woman’s personal contact details, calling it a “grossly irresponsible act” and a “serious breach of privacy” that endangers her safety. Former diplomat Nirupama Menon Rao also tweeted her condemnation of the harassment.

It’s utterly shameful to troll Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and his family over the India-Pakistan ceasefire announcement. A dedicated diplomat, Misri has served India with professionalism and resolve, and there is no ground whatsoever for his vilification . Doxxing his…

— Nirupama Menon Rao 🇮🇳 (@NMenonRao) May 11, 2025

Various IAS, IPS officers’ associations, too, have criticized the attacks on Misri and his family, describing them as ‘deplorable personal attacks’ and ‘unwarranted assaults on civil servants committed to their duties…”

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