New Delhi, February 28

Capt Mandeep Singh, father of Gurmehar Kaur, had died in an Army operation on August 6, 1999 — 10 days after the Kargil war that ended on July 26.Capt Mandeep Singh of the 49 Army Air Defence unit was posted at Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir when the unit fought terrorists and seven of them died. Sources said all those martyred in such operations were treated on a par with battle casualties. Though Kargil war, termed Operation Vijay, had ended after international intervention, some “mopping up” operations were conducted in the areas located east of Kargil. Capt Mandeep Singh had died on the spot in an encounter with terrorists that had commenced at 1.15 am on August 6. — TNS

Won’t be cowed, says Jalandhar girl’ s grandpa

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, February 28

Kanwaljeet Singh, grandfather of Gurmehar Kaur who has been facing hate messages and rape threats on the social media, today said he was not intimidated by the threats. “What harm can these trollers do to my granddaughter? They can kill her at the most. So what? We, who have faced the martyrdom of our young son, are bold enough to withstand any eventuality. My son was martyred on August 6, 1999, after killing 26 men on the enemy side,” he told the media here.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)He said he stood by his granddaughter’s statement. “I am shocked at the treatment meted out to a martyr’s daughter. There is a campus fight going on. This young girl has something to say on the issue. At least, hear her out patiently. Is this the tribute the country is paying to my son’s martyrdom?”Blaming the BJP for the trolling, he alleged when his son was killed the then BJP government did not even ensure that they were issued ID cards. “Today when my granddaughter is being victimised and branded anti-national, it is again the BJP in power,” Kanwaljeet said.Gurmehar’s paternal uncle Davinder Singh, who teaches English at a Nakodar college, said Gurmehar was mature enough to have said what she wanted to. ” I am a little upset over the discussion on the place, date and time of my brother’s martyrdom. We as a family stand by Gurmehar.”A worried Rajwinder Kaur said she wanted the controversy around her daughter to end. “My daughter’s security is an issue bigger than any other,” she said.“No statements from me, my family or my behalf. I request to be given privacy. Thank you,” Gurmehar tweeted. She later closed her Facebook account.

Now, Yogeshwar mocks Gurmehar

Day after Sehwag, Haryana wrestler joins slugfest on Twitter, Phogat sisters too pitch in

New Delhi, February 28

Olympic wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt has become the latest celebrity to join the social media slugfest that was triggered by Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur.Dutt took to Twitter comparing the student, who belongs to Nakodar in Punjab and is daughter of martyr Capt Mandeep Singh, with Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and a black buck in Salman Khan’s alleged poaching case.Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag had yesterday appeared on Twitter with a placard post reading: “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did”. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)It all started in the aftermath of Ramjas College violence in Delhi when Gurmehar tweeted her picture holding a placard that read: “I am a student of DU. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me.” Sehwag’s tweet yesterday, however, came in response to another post by Gurmehar a few months ago amid India-Pakistan tension when she wrote: “Pakistan did not kill my father, but war did.”Also to join the fight on social media were famous wrestler sisters from Haryana, Babita and Geeta Phogat. Babita condemned alleged rape threats to Gurmehar, but refused to stand by her saying she supposedly “did not speak up for her country”. “When I saw Gurmehar’s video, I tweeted on one thing that I found wrong. She said her father was killed by war, and not Pakistan. I found it wrong as it is an insult to our nation and bravehearts. How can her father’s soul rest in peace if she speaks against the nation?” said Babita.Echoing similar views, Geeta said it was obvious the countrymen would “not spare her if she spoke against India”. “If someone goes against the nation, he or she won’t be spared irrespective of gender,” she said. — Agencies

Tharoor takes on Viru

• Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Tuesday voiced regret over cricketer Virender Sehwag’s move to “trivialise a serious issue like war”. I am disappointed that my cricket hero Virender Sehwag chose to enter the wholly politicised debate over Gurmehar Kaur’s words on Twitter.

DSGMC out in support

• Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee chief Manjit Singh GK has announced support for Gurmehar Kaur after she received “rape threats”. In a message sent to Gurmehar and her family, GK assured them of his support “under all circumstances.” “Threats to daughter of a martyr can never stand for nationalism.”

It’s moral bankruptcy: BKU

Chandigarh, February 28

Bharti Kisan Union president Balbir Singh Rajewal said his organisation was with Gurmehar Kaur and that the BJP and its affiliates had exhibited moral bankruptcy by targeting a young girl whose father had sacrificed his life while defending the country.He said film actor Randeep Hooda should tender an unconditional apology to Gurmehar or the BKU would oppose the screening of his films in Punjab. Former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh said Gurmehar Kaur had taken a brave step. “Students in universities and collages are not captive slaves of the ABVP”, he said. “Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of a Kargil hero, deserves all our support in her bold endeavour to strengthen free voice in secular India,” he added. — TNS

Ramjas issue: DU students, teachers take out protest march

Students and teachers of Delhi University, JNU and Jamia during their protest march against ABVP at North Campus in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI

New Delhi, February 28Angered by what they say is “stifling of voices,” hundreds of university students and teachers took out a protest march on Tuesday aimed at the ABVP as a controversy over free speech in the country gathered pace.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

The large-scale participation of Delhi University students, said to be largest in recent times, was remarkable given that the institution is not known for volatile students activism like the Jawaharlal Nehru University, whose students also added their voice at the march besides many eminent academicians and scholars of other colleges.”The protest is essentially against stifling of voices on campuses across the country, including the Delhi University. We want to reclaim the space to discuss and dissent,” said All India Students Association leader in DU, Kanwalpreet Kaur.ABVP, which is also backed by the RSS, faced criticism after it was involved in violence at Ramjas college last week.Several students and teachers of the college were beaten, allegedly by ABVP members, for inviting JNU students Umar Khalid and Shela Rashid to a seminar on free speech which was eventually cancelled.Twenty-year-old DU student Gurmehar Kaur became the centre of the controversy after she launched a social media campaign against ABVP, which immediately drew threats of rape, allegedly by ABVP members, and ridicule by a Union minister, a BJP MP and former cricketer Virender Sehwag.Today, as the march made its way through the North Campus of Delhi University, with hundreds of students of JNU, DU and Jamia, she tweeted, “All my friends. Our lovely faculty! how I wish I was there.”JNU student Kanhaiya Kumar, who is out on bail in a sedition case, also joined the anti-ABVP protest march at DU.”You (ABVP) can’t enforce one particular ideology on anyone and there should be room for discussion,” he said while addressing the protesters.Slogans of ‘Azaadi’ and ‘cheeky ABVP why so creepy’Cries for ‘azaadi’ and the ‘cheeky ABVP why so creepy’ reverberated the DU campus during the anti-ABVP march.Students, teachers and non-teaching staff from various universities including JNU, Jamia and Ambedkar University, participated in the protest march.Massive police deployment was in place at the North Campus.Two AISA members were allegedly attacked by ABVP supporters following which an FIR has been registered by Delhi police.The protest march which comes a day after ABVP’s ‘Tiranga March’ was also joined by few politicians, including Left leaders Sitaram Yechury and D Raja, Swaraj Abhiyan’s Yogendra Yadav and AAP’s Pankaj Pushkar, who discarded the ABVP’s “idea of violence for nationalism”.Fearing rerun of last-week violence, massive police deployment was seen on the varsity’s North Campus as protesters continued with their march till they reached the Vivekananda statue in the Art’s faculty– the traditional protest site of ABVP.Buoyed by the turnout at today’s protest, DU students have decided to take out another march from Mandi House to Parliament on March 4 in protest against ABVP.Addressing the protesters, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said, “We will learn our nationalism from Bhagat Singh and not from them whose forefathers never hoisted the national flag at their headquarters. Neither will we tolerate nor will we engage in violence. The protest is not about Left or Right but wrong and right”.Yadav was apparently referring to RSS which till recently did not hoist the tricolour at their Nagpur headquarters.CPI leader Sitaram Yechury said, “They cannot win this with their intellectual skill and want to replace it with violence. Humara nationalism is “we are Indian’ and not ‘who is a Hindu’?””This is a collective fight to defend our constitutional rights. We will be raising the issue of DU in Parliament,” CPI (M) leader D Raja said.Later in the evening, the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) took out a “mashal rally” against “ABVP’s attempts to curb students’ freedom of expression and misusing ‘nationalism’ to further their agenda”.The NSUI, at the same time, condemned the “violent ways” of the Left in handling of the situation. PTI