Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal have come out in support of Gurmehar Kaur, a Delhi University student and daughter of a Kargil martyr.
Kaur has been targeted by right-wing trolls for starting a campaign against the ABVP recently, and has even received rape threats. She has also drawn flak over a post from last year, where she is seen holding a placard that reads, "Pakistan did not kill my father. War killed him."
Union Minister Kiren Rijiju is among the BJP leaders who criticised Kaur over her 2016 post on Monday.
Not surprisingly, opposition politicians have also waded into the controversy. On Monday, Gandhi tweeted in support of Kaur.
AAP Slams BJP
On Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party slammed BJP for not condemning those issuing rape threats to Kaur on social media.
Delhi Chief Minister (DCW) and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP had now become a party of "hooligans" and "criminals".
Sharing a video of Kaur speaking about the "graphically detailed" rape threats she has received, Kejriwal tweeted:
"Threatening our daughters and sisters with rape; is this BJP's patriotism? Shame on these people," he said in another tweet.
Rijiju Targets Kaur
Commenting on Kaur’s post from last year, Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju tweeted on Monday:
In a tweet on Monday, another BJP leader, Pratap Simha, compared Kaur’s 2016 post to Dawood Ibrahim’s involvement in the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
Also getting into the act, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu said certain misguided sections are trying to mislead the youth of our country.
ABVP is a nationalist organisation. If other organisations have different views, let them express it. Why should outsiders go and disturb peace of the campus?
Kaur, a student of Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College, is the daughter of Captain Mandeep Singh, who was killed during the Kargil War.
ABVP members attacked protesters outside Ramjas College on 22 February. The protest was held against ABVP’s disruption of a seminar at Ramjas College the previous day over the participation of JNU student Umar Khalid.
Khalid was charged with sedition last year for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)
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