Democracy isn’t worth a dime if one cannot stand up
and speak out one’s mind. And that is exactly what
Gurmehar Kaur did when she changed her Facebook
profile picture. The new one showed her holding
a placard which said: “I am a student of Delhi
University and I am not afraid of the ABVP.” Since then she
has received graphic treats on social media. She was told to
“just die”, called “worse than Hitler” and threatened with rape
worse than the 2012 gang rape victim in the capital city. Trolls
are a dime a dozen on social media and they have made it their
job to take down anyone who expresses a view which conflicts
with their own or that of their masters. Trolling is hazard on
social media. It’s like driving through bad weather. You have to
take the good with the bad and make the best of it. But things
got worse when a Union minister, cricketer and an actor, all
influential men, condemned her for making the statement and
likened her to a terrorist. Her crime was not that she chose to
speak out, but that she started a social
media campaign after the violence
at Ramjas College on February
22, which was started by ABVP
to protest against a seminar where
JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla
Rashid were invited.
It is well known that the ABVP does not act alone. It follows
the dictates of its saffron master and the aim here is to put an
end to debate in college campuses that shows the government
in poor light or contradicts its stands on contentious issues
like Kashmir, the sangh parivar, caste violence, misogyny and
class apartheid. So it was not surprising to see BJP MP Pratap
Simha, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju and Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley join cause with the ABVP. Jaitley was
speaking at the London School of Economics when he called
for a debate on whether the right to free speech extended to
“assault on the very sovereignty of the nation”. This is nothing
but a clever and well-coordinated effort by the Centre to put
down debate and discussion that does not suit its needs.
Kaur and her fellow students did not set out on a campaign
to challenge the sovereignty of the nation. Their fight is
for freedom of speech which does not hurt or insult anyone,
which is the corner stone of democracy and at the heart of human
rights. Free speech cannot be denied to any citizen of the
nation and more importantly the ABVP or the BJP or the Centre
should not be the arbitrator on what constitutes an assault on
the sovereignty of the nation. This must be left to the courts to
decide. If the ABVP has a grievance the court is the best place
to sort it out, not the street.
