‘Not afraid of ABVP’: DU student whose father died in Kargil war writes on FB
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN Jalandhar’s Gurmehar says she reacted to attack on her friends at Ramjas College
NEW DELHI/JALANDHAR : Days after Delhi University’s Ramjas College witnessed violent clashes, a Lady Sri Ram College student, the daughter of an officer who died in the Kargil war, started a social media campaign ‘I am not afraid of ABVP’ that has garnered widespread support.
Jalandhar’s Gurmehar Kaur, 20, daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, changed her Facebook profile picture holding a placard which read “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”. Gurmehar said she reacted to what happened with her friends and she had no idea that it would garner so much of support from the public. “I was not there at the spot where this incident happened, but when I got to know that some of my friends got injured during the clash and they were pelted with stones, I got upset. I could not bear that and took to social media to protest.”
“The brutal attack on innocent students by ABVP is very disturbing and should be stopped. It was not an attack on protesters, but an attack on every notion of democracy that is held dear in every Indian’s heart. It is an attack on ideals, morals, freedom and rights of every person born to this nation,” she said in a Facebook status.
“The stones that you pelt hit our bodies, but fail to bruise our ideas. This profile picture is my way of protesting against the tyranny of fear,” she added.
The literature student’s classmates and peers started sharing the post, prompting students from various universities across the country to change their profile pictures with the same placard, as the initiative went viral.
Kaur’s Facebook post so far has 2,100 reactions, 3,456 shares and 542 comments.
Ramjas College had on Wednesday witnessed violence between members of AISA and ABVP . ABVP supporters had protested against an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar , which led to violence after a counter demonstration by students over not allowing a peaceful discussion.
In May 2016, she had posted a velfie (selfie video) that had crossed over 50,000 shares on Facebook and YouTube. She had recalled how as a kid she used to hate Pakistan just because it took away her father, only to realise later, “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.”
Kaur wrote that she will fight “for peace between India and Pakistan,” as she believes her father would have still been there had there been no war.
She ended it with a powerful message, saying, “I wish to live in a world where there are no Gurmehar Kaurs who miss their dad. I am not alone. There are many like me.”