Cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Wednesday joined the debate over whether Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur’s campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) was justified or not.
Kaur has been attacked over her views on social media, with personalities including Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt and cricketer Virender Sehwag (who later said his tweet was not against Gurmehar’s views, but plain fun) weighing in.
Now Gambhir has also jumped in – and not just with a tweet, but an entire video. This one is a plea to people who are mocking Gurmehar and threatening her with rape.
The video said that Gambhir had massive respect for the army and their sacrifices, but he was left disappointed with recent events concerning Gurmehar. He then goes on to say that India is a free country where everyone is entitled to their opinion.
“If a daughter who lost her father puts up posts about the horrors of war with the intention of achieving peace, she has all the right to. It is not an opportunity for everyone to show how patriotic they are and gang up on her to mock her. Everyone may or may not agree with it (her opinion), but mocking her for it is despicable,” the video says.
The freedom of expression is absolute and equal for all!
High time we learnt that and practised it daily in every sphere of life. pic.twitter.com/iMfIanQyh1— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) March 1, 2017
This one doesn’t seem to be dying down too soon, so keep watching this space.