 "Gurmehar Kaur, threatened and targeted, 'withdraws' campaign & leaves Delhi")
Gurmehar Kaur on Tuesday announced that she was "withdrawing" from her protest campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and wanted to be "left alone". She has also reportedly left Delhi for now.
In a candid admission of the pressure she has faced since she started her campaign, she said that she had reached the limit her "20-year-self could take".
The Kargil martyr's daughter had been reportedly receiving threats of sexual violence after she posted a picture on Facebook protesting against ABVP after last week's clashes between the former and the All India Students Association at the Ramjas College. "I request to be left alone. I said what I had to say," the 20-year-old Lady Shri Ram College student wrote on Twitter.
Bullied and harried
After her campaign went viral, she reportedly received a plethora of threats, including those involving sexual violence. It seems that the threats did their intended job. Gurmehar tweeted, "It's a request, please leave me alone. Stop spamming my wall and phone. Any question about my decision tweet to @Voice_Of_Ram."
The twitter handle in the above tweet belongs to Ram Subramanian, who is reportedly Kaur's adviser. Subramanian tweeted from his handle that Kaur was "scared" and that she was "leaving Delhi for now."
The twitter handle in the above tweet belongs to Ram Subramanian, who is reportedly Kaur's adviser. Subramanian tweeted from his handle that Kaur was "scared" and that she was "leaving Delhi for now."
"To anyone questioning my courage and bravery, I've shown more than enough," she said in another tweet. The most poignant tweet was the following: "I have been through a lot and this is all my 20-year-self could take."
It wasn't just random people on social media who trolled her for her stand. Celebrities and political leaders took shots at her too.
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On Monday, her campaign drew controversial reactions from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, with Union minister Kiren Rijiju wondering who was "polluting" her mind and another comparing her with wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim.
Pratap Simha, BJP MP from Mysuru, tweeted, "At least Dawood did not use the crutches of his father's name to justify his anti-national stand." His tweet came in response to another of Kaur's photographs, in which she said, "Pakistan did not kill my father. War killed him."
To mock her, Simha also posted a photograph showing Dawood with the message, "I didn't kill people in 1993. Bombs killed them."
Rijiju also took to Twitter to take a dig at her. "Who's polluting this young girl's mind? Strong armed forces prevent a war. India never attacked anyone but a weak India was always invaded," the minister of state for home affairs said.
She still believes she was right
"One thing is for sure, next time we will think twice before resorting to violence or threats and that's all this was about," she said in her last tweet.
Through most of her campaign, Kaur appears to have conducted herself with poise. Even as she bowed out, she had this to say: "The campaign is about students and not about me. Please go to the March in huge numbers. Best of luck."