Pritam's Blog
You Cannot Be A Warrior Of Peace, Especially When Your Father Was A Martyr In A War
The recent attempts to malign the character of Gurmehar Kaur — by branding her as an anti-national and a brainwashed youngster proves once again that there is no place for freedom of expression in India. And that India is, indeed, an intolerant country.
Gurmehar Kaur, a student of Delhi University’s Lady Shri Ram College had recently started a social media campaign opposing ABVP. The campaign was started after the Ramjas College row last month which witnessed large-scale violence between ABVP and AISA members, which was initiated by the ABVP. This was not the first time the ABVP goons were unleashed upon politically concerned students conducting an event.
In protest, the daughter of the Kargil war martyr Captain Mandeep Singh changed her profile picture on Facebook to a photo of her holding a placard which said, “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP.”
The post went viral when students across the country started sharing the photo.
This was followed by brutal attack on Gurmehar Kaur on social media by the supporters of ABVP and Sangh Parivar. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, Virender Sehwag, the Indian cricketer, and Yogeshwar Dutt, the Indian freestyle wrestler, were some of the prominent people who too attacked the 20 year girl. A video from nine months ago was also dug up where Gurmehar Kaur, through a series of placards, had propagated peace between India and Pakistan, and had questioned the caliber of the leadership of the two countries.
Since then she has been mocked, abused, and intimidated on social media. She even received rape threats. Eventually, she withdrew from the campaign.
Gurmehar Kaur was accused of being an anti-national, an attention-seeker, and also of being a brainwashed youngster whose Facebook post and videos have political implications. Apparently, Gurmehar Kaur has an AAP connection.
All because she opposed the atrocities of the ABVP goons.
What did Gurmehar do?
She opposed the ABVP. That is all.
And supporters of ABVP and the Sangh Parivar ignored this; instead they found a video of her from last year where she said that Pakistan did not kill her father but the war between the two countries did, and they attacked her for that, questioned her loyalty and patriotism for India. They also asked if she was brainwashed. Come on, don’t you know that you can’t be a peace warrior if your parent had been a martyr in a war?
Then they, the supporters of ABVP and the Sangh Parivar discovered Gurmehar’s alleged association with AAP, and they said that she had been brainwashed and that her posts had political association. Even if she is associated with a particular political party, why would that matter? Because being an AAPtard, or as a matter of fact, any XYZtard in this country means being anti-national?
Is the BJP saying that we, the people of India are patriots if only we support them, their ideology?
Also does supporting a particular political party, its ideology, necessarily mean everything you say is decided by the party you support? Is that how the Sangh Parivaar works? Can’t an individual have an independent opinion just because they support a particular party apart from yours?
Unleashing your ‘Cybergoondas’ to attack a person expressing their opinion, and resorting to irrelevant and out of context sides of that person only means that the BJP government and the Sangh Parivar have no other way to defend themselves against what they did at Ramjas College, opposing which Gurmehar had started her campaign.
And it also means we are indeed an intolerant country, especially under this government.