Days after the image of a female protester standing in front of a police van went viral, another video has surfaced online.
This time it is a woman police officer standing in front of a bus surrounded by a large number of protesters.
The incident happened in Bhopal when protesting farmers tried to push a bus off the road as they marched towards the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s residence to press for their demands.
The woman police officer standing in front of the bus is Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic and Crime, Monika Shukla.
Called Bhopal’s “Lady Singham”, Shukla’s daring act has earned her widespread applause.
Full Interview | ACP Traffic Monika Shukla speaks to NDTV’s @PadmajaJoshi on the viral visuals from farmers protest in Bhopal, what led to her stopping the bus and the aftermath#NDTVExclusive pic.twitter.com/Op2NpgCDMS
— NDTV (@ndtv) July 30, 2026
Speaking to NDTV about her now-viral act, Shukla said her duty was to stop farmers from entering the city and that she was only doing her job by stopping them from pushing the bus.
She said police had parked school buses on the road as an additional layer of barricading to stop the farmers’ march.
The farmers tried to push the buses and remove the barricade.
“Seeing the bus being pushed forward, I just acted on instinct and stood in front of it as I had to stop the protesters,” she said, narrating the incident.
The video of ACP Monika Shukla standing in front of one of the buses trying to stop it has since gone viral.
On seeing the ACP standing in front, the protesting farmers left the bus.
Insisting that her act was “nothing extraordinary”, she said that with her long experience in managing law and order, she knows how to deal with any situation.
“I decided on the spot to stand in front of the bus to stop protesters from moving it. I didn’t feel scared. Did what I had to,” Shukla told NDTV.
Maintaining that protesters are not criminals, Shukla said police need to practice restraint while dealing with any kind of protest.
“We need to work with restraint. Protesters are not criminals. They are also citizens raising their demands,” she said.
She, however, added that there is always the possibility of some anti-social elements infiltrating the protesters to create trouble.
“There was no leader of the farm protesters at that point and a large number of people were trying to enter the state capital. My responsibility was to ensure that nothing untoward happened in the city. My only concern was to ensure law and order,” she said.
Talking about the recent student protests in Delhi, she said that everyone has right to express their views in a democracy, but “it should be done in a peaceful manner within the ambit of law and without disrupting lives of common people”.
