Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, to Sabrina Siddiqui on Thursday at the White House: “In India’s democratic values, there’s absolutely no discrimination, neither on the basis of caste, creed, or age, or any kind of geographic location.”

Marendra Nodi, a Twitter user who describes himself as a political consultant, to Siddiqui on her Twitter page: “You were there as a reporter for the Wall Street journal. A business newspaper. You could have asked a question about India’s economy. Trade ties. But no. You had to make it about you and your identity like every Muslims everywhere all the time virtue signal and ask a question that even a halfwit knows Modi was never going to answer. You wasted your opportunity and you’re an incompetent journalist. This will be the high point of your lane career.”

Almost identical tweets were repeated by several Twitter handles — a practice referred to as a “toolkit” campaign, normally orchestrated by a single source.

Less than 48 hours after Siddiqui, The Wall Street Journal’s White House reporter, asked Prime Minister Modi about minority rights and free speech in India, she experienced firsthand what many minorities face in the country if they say or ask anything that the Right-wing ecosystem finds unpalatable.

If some social media users with Indian names have been highlighting Siddiqui’s purported roots and the nationality of her parents — completely immaterial while discharging the responsibilities of a journalist — others underscored her religion to undermine the relevance of the crux of her question which Modi did not answer.

Those who were blowing the dog whistle seemed oblivious to the fact that they were unwittingly punching holes in the categorical denial by Modi of any discrimination in India.

Such was the focus on her religion and roots that Siddiqui felt compelled to take a diasporic variant of the Tebbit test that was in vogue in Britain in the latter half of the last century. The Conservative politician in Britain had made loyalty to the local cricket team a yardstick to measure the integration of South Asian immigrants.

Siddiqui displayed photos of herself wearing Indian cricket team jerseys after aspersions were cast on her motives for questioning Modi at the “joint press conference” with US President Joe Biden two days ago.

Siddiqui had asked Modi: “…What steps are you and your government willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in your country and to uphold free speech?” Modi denied there was any discrimination in India but evaded a direct answer to her question.

Soon, Siddiqui was described on Twitter as a “Pakistani” and, therefore, “anti-India”.

Siddiqui, who has previously worked for The Guardian of UK, tweeted photos of her wearing the blue Indian cricket jersey during the 2011 and 2015 World Cup editions while cheering for the team along with her father.

She tweeted: “Since some have chosen to make a point of my personal background, it feels only right to provide a fuller picture. Sometimes identities are more complex than they seem.”

Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair tweeted Siddiqui’s tweets in 2015 and 2014, respectively, where she said she has relatives from both India and Pakistan, and is a descendant of Aligarh Muslim University founder Syed Ahmad Khan. Khan, a philosopher and reformer, is a red rag for many Indian ultranationalists for his espousal of Muslim nationalism and the two-nation theory.

Zubair tweeted: “Great-Great grand-daughter of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan has to prove her loyalty too, just like thousands of Indian Muslims in India. This is an old trick by Right Wing trolls. One question to people in power, You’ll be labelled as Anti-National, Pakistani, Anti-Hindu, Anti-India etc.”

Marendra Nodi, the Twitter user, may think Siddiqui is “incompetent”. But Biden does not.

When the US President made an unannounced — and audacious — trip to the war-hit Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in February, Siddiqui was among the only two journalists handpicked to accompany him.

Involving a train ride, the presidential journey was unparalleled in modern US history. Since Abraham Lincoln rode to the front lines outside Washington to watch battles in Northern Virginia during the Civil War, no sitting President has got that close to combat, The New York Times had reported then.

On Saturday, Siddiqui found support from several Indian journalists.

Maya Mirchandani, who teaches Media Studies at Ashoka University in Haryana’s Sonepat, tweeted: “It is pathetic that a reporter has been so relentlessly trolled for asking PM Modi a question about free speech and the concerns of minorities in India that she has to ‘prove’ her Indian identity on Twitter. No matter who had asked, the question was an important one.”

The Hindu newspaper’s diplomatic affairs editor Suhasini Haidar tweeted: “Sabrina asked a pertinent question, that’s what journalists do. Targeting journalists for their personal backgrounds is an old and desperate trope. Instead of focusing on PM Modi’s answer, which he gave willingly, strange that trolls are focusing on who asked the question.”