Indian students rally after woman threatened with rape

Published March 1, 2017
Indian college students participate in a protest rally on Tuesday.—AP
Indian college students participate in a protest rally on Tuesday.—AP

NEW DELHI: Rallies were held in India’s capital on Tuesday in support of a student who received rape threats over her controversial remarks on Pakistan after being mocked online by celebrities, including cricketer Virender Sehwag.

Hundreds of students from several colleges in New Delhi took to the streets to protest against the threats and recent campus violence, amid an ongoing debate on nationalism and fears of the muzzling of freedom of speech under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

“My nationalism is beyond your claustrophobic nationalism,” read a placard at the rally, with protesters shouting slogans against the right-wing student group linked to Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.

The latest controversy was triggered after a 20-year-old student Gurmehar Kaur criticised the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) students’ union over its role in campus violence.

This was followed by a video post which read: “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.” Kaur’s father, a captain in the Indian army, was killed in an attack on a military camp near the de facto border with Pakistan in 1999.

But her olive branch approach to India’s nuclear-armed arch-rival led users to lampoon her, including celebrities such as Sehwag. He retorted with a Twitter post saying: “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did.”

The post by Sehwag — one of India’s all-time leading run-scorers before he retired in 2015 — went viral on social media, with many trolling the 20-year-old student online and threatening her with physical violence.

“I have been getting a lot of threats on social media. I think it is very scary when people threaten you with violence and rape,” she told NDTV.

Asked about how felt towards Sehwag, she replied: “Honestly, this just breaks your heart because these are people you grow up looking up to.”

Critics of Modi’s government say that nationalist sentiment has grown sharply during his premiership and authorities too often turn a blind eye when right-wing groups respond aggressively to any show of dissent.

The Hindustan Times said on Tuesday that the threats against Kaur represented “an attack on the fundamental right to express an opinion which the likes of the ABVP and its backers do not find comfortable”.

“It has become the norm to intimidate students, writers, professors, filmmakers and journalists to name a few when they express an independent opinion in any medium,” it said in an editorial.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2017

Opinion

Editorial

Disregarding CCI
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Disregarding CCI

The failure to regularly convene CCI meetings means that the process of democratic decision-making is falling apart.
Defeating TB
04 Nov, 2024

Defeating TB

CONSIDERING the fact that Pakistan has the fifth highest burden of tuberculosis in the world as per the World Health...
Ceasefire charade
Updated 04 Nov, 2024

Ceasefire charade

The US talks of peace, while simultaneously arming and funding their Israeli allies, are doomed to fail, and are little more than a charade.
Concerning measures
Updated 03 Nov, 2024

Concerning measures

The govt must seek political input and consensus on the changes it is seeking to make and be open about its intentions.
Short-lived relief?
03 Nov, 2024

Short-lived relief?

POLICYMAKERS must be jumping with joy. At the close of the first quarter of FY25, the budget posted a consolidated...
Brisk spread
03 Nov, 2024

Brisk spread

THE surge in polio cases has reached distressing levels with a tally of 45 last reported, after two cases emerged in...