Renowned lyricist and poet, Javed Akhtar, on Tuesday blamed the poor literacy level of Virendra Sehwag, Yogeshwar Dutt and Phogat sisters for their act of ‘bullying’ against the daughter of India’s martyr.
In his tweet, Akhtar termed them ‘hardly literate’ questioning the intellect of India’s educated class.
He wrote, “If a hardly literate player or a wrestler troll a pacifist daughter of a martyr its understandable but whats wrong with some educated folks.”
If a hardly literate player or a wrestler troll a pacifist daughter of a martyr its understandable but whats wrong with some educated folks
— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) February 28, 2017
Gurmehar, 20, the daughter of army martyr Captain Mandeep Singh and a student of Lady Sri Ram College, had started the campaign following the violence at Ramjas College.
It received massive support from students across various universities.
Rijiju had taken to Twitter to criticise Kaur.
“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 had said.
In another tweet, directed at the minister of state for home, Kiren Rijiju, the former Rajya Sabha MP said, “Mr minister , you have condemned the left by falsely accusing them for celebrating soldiers killing n not a word about AVBP. Grossly biased.”
Mr minister , you have condemned the left by falsely accusing them for celebrating soldiers killing n not a word about AVBP. Grossly biased
— Javed Akhtar (@Javedakhtarjadu) February 28, 2017
Akhtar’s tweets came after Sehwag was joined on Twitter by Olympian wrestler Dutt and Phogat sisters attacked Gurmehar for her decision to condemn the violence unleashed by members of the ABVP, the student wing of the RSS.
Faced with unprecedented outrage, both Sehwag and actor Randeep Hooda, who too had praised the mocking tweet of former Indian cricketer, have clarified stating that they did not intend to mock Gurmehar.
Wrestler Babibat Phogat, who shot to fame because of Aamir Khan’s film on her life, told ANI, “Gurmehar Kaur’s view that her father was killed by war and not Pakistan was wrong for me. It’s against our nation and martyrs.”
Many found Phogat sister’s comments on martyr ironical given the person they were bullying had lost her father while defending India’s borders.
Gurmehar withdrew from her social media campaign after allegedly receiving rape threats from the members of the RSS-backed outfit.
(With PTI inputs)