Storm in a Teacup

The whole Gurmehar Kaur s***storm that’s in the news these days is such a bread-and-circus (non)event. At least not anywhere near as big a thing as it is being made out to be. The easiest part of all this is to the unacceptable death and rape threats made to her just for voicing an opinion. That’s totally wrong.

Having said the obvious, look at other aspects which are not so black and white. Take her pic with the placard:
“I AM A STUDENT OF DELHI UNIVERSITY. I AM NOT AFRAID OF ABVP. I AM NOT ALONE. EVERY STUDENT OF INDIA IS WITH ME. #FIGHTBACKDU #STUDENTSAGAINSTABVP.”
This one is complicated because it involves many issues. Does she have the right to an opinion? Absolutely. Is she right in saying that many others agree with her? Obviously. But is it true that every (or even most) students of India agrees with her? Obviously not. So some counter-responses were only to be expected. Nothing very interesting in any of this.

And that should have been the end of it, but this is the Age of the Internet. Anything you post can be raked up. So out stumbled an earlier pic of the same girl where she said this about her dad, a martyr of the Kargil War:
“Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.”
Martyr’s daughter or not, that is so unbelievably stupid (and wrong) on so many levels. So is it really a surprise why that line would irritate and anger so many Indians? All Virendra Sehwag did was to mock the sheer illogical’ness with his own tweet:
“I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did. Bat me hai Dum ! #BharatJaisiJagahNahi”
And yes, Randeep Hooda found Sehwag’s tweet funny. Surely, both Sehwag and Hooda have a right to their opinion… just as much Gurmehar does to hers. Celebrities have a right to voice their opinion too. Period.

But the media’s stance that one cannot criticize the daughter of a martyr defies any sense. Guess what, tomorrow we can be grateful to a commando for killing a terrorist; and the day after that, we can criticize him for evading taxes. One good act doesn’t make him immune to criticism for his other acts. This is just common sense, but the media likes controversy, doesn’t it?

Notice the irony in all this? The very same media who label as jingoism any right-wing nationalism or patriotism are now using the sacrifice of a soldier as defense against all criticism of his daughter. The media will talk about freedom of speech, but resent Sehwag and Hooda for exercising their’s.

Of course, this very hypocrisy then feeds into the next round of recriminations and name calling from the other side. And so the circle continues… until we stumble onto the Next Non-Event That Tears Us Up, that is.

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