They are both in their early 20s and both lost their fathers, tragically. One became a ‘poster girl for the liberal ecosystem’, other a ‘victim of right wing politics’.
In 2016, one Gurmehar Kaur posted a video on social media claiming how her father, Captain Mandeep Singh, was martyred in the 1999 Kargil War.
She claimed that while she used to once hate Pakistanis but she doesn’t anymore. She said she doesn’t, because Pakistan didn’t kill her father, war did. Indeed, the casualties of war are not just limited to the soldiers who lay down their lives. Their families also get devastated and it takes years to come to terms with the loss. However, the army records say otherwise about the martyred soldier. Her father laid down his life while battling an attack by militants on the midnight of 6th August, 1999 in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara. By then, the Kargil War was long over. But Gurmehar Kaur was the new hero.
On 1st December, 2014, Judge Loya, who was the special Central Bureau of Investigation judge presiding over the trial of BJP President Amit Shah and various top cops of Gujarat in the alleged fake encounter of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kauser Bi, died in Nagpur, at the age of 48. His death has come under a lot of spotlight, with many politicians and journalists casting aspersions on the circumstances of his death and saying that his demise was politically motivated.
However, his son held an emotional press conference yesterday, urging NGOs, politicians and journalists to leave them alone as they do not suspect any foul play. But journalists and politicians decided they know better than a 20-something impressionable young boy who just has to be saying all that under pressure, because what would a 20 something year old know? Anuj Loya, a second year law student, was the victim.
Later when Gurmehar spoke against AVBP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the students wing of the RSS) during the Ramjas incident last year, support poured in from all directions.
Proud of u Gurmehar. https://t.co/MuFBVHS45Q
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 25, 2017
Young @mehartweets is a peace-loving student, who shows us the bliss of being a 20 yr old. Let the young be idealistic, for god’s sake!
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) February 28, 2017
Against the tyranny of fear we stand with our students.For every voice raised in anger, intolerance &ignorance there will be a Gurmehar Kaur
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 27, 2017
Gurmehar was ‘right’ and ‘brave’ because she ‘stood up’ against the ‘nationalistic forces’. This is like Pakistan hailing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for questioning the surgical strikes. Or how Pakistan started quoting The Quint’s propaganda against Kulbhushan Jadhav to discredit India. Similarly, anyone who parroted the narrative they had in mind, was applauded and celebrated as a hero. The similarity in their modus operandi, is shocking and heartbreakingly similar.
Anuj Loya, who is perhaps as old as Gurmehar, lost his father three years back when he was on a personal visit to Nagpur. Judge Loya was sitting over a high profile case involving the then MLA of Gujarat and a close aide of former chief minister of Gujarat and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah. Last few months, many journalists and politicians have brought up Judge Loya’s death, claiming, naye, insisting that it was ‘mysterious’, casting aspersions that perhaps Shah had something to do with it.
However, the facts claimed otherwise. But once the wheels of narrative have been set in motion, how can it possibly be stopped? There is only one way. Anuj Loya is a young, impressionable boy. He has got to be acting under pressure from the mighty and the powerful. Anyone who did not adhere to the narrative was called a victim. And not just any victim. A victim of ‘fascist nationalist forces’, of course.
It almost seems like the rot in the democracy of India, is so deep that the ‘opposition’ comes out in full force if it suits their agenda. Journalists, politicians, social media team of opposition, all came together to discredit Loya.
” I would like to thank Amit Shah for the press conference. We approached him to organize this press conference,”
Nothing suspicious when son can’t even make eye contact /looks scared
Judge Loya’s Death Politicised, ‘No Suspicion Now’, Says Family – https://t.co/ApIMYGNs6g
— Anusha Soni (@AnushaSoni23) January 14, 2018
Loya’s former colleague accidentally reveals, the PC (of Loya’s son) was organized by Amit Shah himself. If so, it needs to be investigated if Amit Shah is pressurizing Loya’s son. His family raised the doubts on Loya’s death earlier; high possibility of shah pressurizing them! pic.twitter.com/xVDWm2VMF3
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) January 14, 2018
Delhi Chief Minister, who was vocally supporting Gurmehar, resorted to retweeting tweets by rumormongers.
Soon enough, others pitched in, trying to give it a new twist.
Boxing enthusiast masquerading as journalist Rajdeep Sardesai floated a conspiracy theory whether Anuj was saying all this under pressure from someone.
Don’t harass us: Judge Loya son says to media. Same son in Feb 2015, according to a friend of his, wrote: ‘if anything happens to us, xxx and others involved in conspiracy will be responsible.’ So what changed? Or who changed what?
— Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) January 14, 2018
But when Sunanda Pushkar, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a hotel in Delhi, Sardesai was found questioning the police for doing their job.
Similarly, Prashant Bhushan, who called PIL filed by senior politician Subramanian Swamy on Sunanda Pushkar’s death a ‘political interest litigation’, was quick to refer to Anuj Loya’s lawyer, Ameet Naik as Amit Shah.
Don’t raise your voice on Sunanda’s death as she died naturally by eating lot of sleeping pills with bite marks on her hand.
Raise your voice on Judge Loya’s death as Amit Shah entered his heart, choked his arteries and caused him a heart attack. pic.twitter.com/v4aT87H2mv
— Justice Smoking Skills (@SmokingSkills_) January 15, 2018
Another so called journalist, Nikhil Wagle, insists on evidence even for carrying out investigation in Sunanda Pushkar’s death but wants the Supreme Court to continue with investigation in Judge Loya’s death even if his family does not suspect a foul play, because it is now matter of ‘public importance’.
Same day, 2 arguments.
Argument 1: If you accuse Congress did something, bring evidence to prove they’re guilty.
Argument 2: If I accuse Amit Shah did something, he must bring evidence to prove he’s innocent. pic.twitter.com/5eSSRLo421— pracchannAstrin (@WordOfTheFree) January 14, 2018
This goes out to show that when the ’eminent intellectuals’ talk about youth taking the centre-stage, they essentially want the ones who toe their political line. The ‘free and independent thinkers’ who could further their narrative. The state of the Indian ‘intelligentsia’ is such, that only those who are gullible enough to toe their motivated line, are hailed as free thinkers, while others who dare to speak as they wish, are victims of the ones the intelligentsia seek to malign. The intellectual dishonesty in public discourse seems to find a new abyss each passing day.
