Gurmehar free to say and do what she wants: Rijiju
NEW DELHI: Hours after Delhi University student and daughter of a martyr, Gurmehar Kaur announced her withdrawal from the anti-abvp campaign, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju said that she was free to say and do what she wants and should be left alone as per her wish.
Maintaining his earlier stand, the minister said: “Gurmehar Kaur is a young girl and creating controversy over her isn’t right.” He slammed the Leftist parties for misleading the youth. “During war between India and China, they (Left) supported China and mislead the youth which is not right,” Rijiju added.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also steered clear of controversial statements saying: “Gurmehar Kaur is a martyr’s daughter, please respect that. People who are politicising the matter, what do they have to say about terrorists?”
He said: “I have utmost respect for freedom of speech. But if someone talks about breaking the nation in the garb of free speech, they will be given a suitable response,” he added.
Meanwhile, the backlash against Gurmehar’s campaign continues, with sports persons joining the chorus along with some Bollywood celebs and political leaders. Hours back, wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt posted a version of Kaur’s campaign on social media – in the form of a meme. His tweet was followed up by further retweets with hashtag of #Bharatjaisijagahnahi which was also advocated by Sehwag in his post.
Lyricist Javed Akhtar lambasted cricketer Virender Sehwag and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt for trolling Gurmehar Kaur.
“If a hardly literate player or a wrestler trolls a pacifist daughter of a martyr, it’s understandable but what’s wrong with some educated folks?” he said.
Left leader Sitaram Yechury while addressing the students present at the protest march at Delhi University said: “Our nationalism is ‘We are Indian’ not ‘who is a Hindu’. They cannot win this with their intellectual skill and so they want to replace it with violence.”
CPI leader D Raja also addressed the protest march, saying: “This is a collective fight to defend our constitutional rights. We will be raising the issue of DU in Parliament.”