Goa’s BJP MLA from Panjim, Sidharth Kuncalienker, has staged a road show against the Kargil Martyr’s daughter, Gurmehar Kaur, who had received rape threats from the supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the saffron party.
Kuncalienker took out a procession, which was billed as Tiranga Yatra, in Goa openly shaming a young daughter of a martyr, who laid his life protecting India’s borders.
People who took part in his road show were carrying placards that said, “Fakr hai us shahid par .. sharminda hai us aulaad par)”
Gurmehar had become the right-wing Hindutva brigade’s target after she launched a Facebook campaign saying ‘I’m not afraid of the ABVP.” Her campaign was launched just a day after the members of the RSS’s student wing had allegedly assaulted female students and members of the media on the campus of Ramjas College in Delhi.
Joining the troll gang were former India cricketer, Virender Sehwag, Olympian wrestler, Yogeshwar Dutt, Bollywood actors, Anupam Kher and Randeep Hooda. Many felt that the celebrities, who targetted Gurmehar, were the proponents of Hindutva ideology.
The BJP’s Goa Facebook page even flaunted the MLA’s act of publicly shaming a Kargil martyr’s daughter, who’s now withdrawn from social media fearing reprisal from the right-wing brigade.
Its Facebook message said, “For BJP, National interest and the pride of Tiranga is non-negotiable. We will fight till our last breathe to uphold India’s interest.”
However, the Aam Aadmi Party, has condemned the act.
AAP’s Valmiki Nayak said, “This, after BJP workers themselves have beencaught selling the country’s military secrets to Pakistani intelligence in Madhya Pradesh, instigating violence on university campuses in Delhi, running child abduction rackets in Kolkata, sex rackets in Gujarat & drug rackets in Punjab, and laundering hundreds of crores of rupees after demonetisation across the country.
“Samuel Johnson was very right – Patriotism is indeed the last resort of scoundrels.”
Junior home minister, Kiren Rijiju, had famously talked about Gurmehar’s mind being polluted because of her decision to oppose the ABVP.
Lyricist Javed Akhtar had blamed the poor literacy level of Haryana-based celebrities who had made Gurmehar the target of their online trolling.