Grand old party, Congress, in association with Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, has organised an ‘anti-bullying workshop’ where one of the speakers, Gurmehar Kaur, is best known in recent times for threatening young boys for making memes.
Bullying is a systemic problem in our country. Come join our fight to put an end to it. Register: https://t.co/qCYAljV8jq pic.twitter.com/zobX3yFc8f
— Congress (@INCIndia) July 24, 2018
Gurmehar Kaur, 20-something-year-old girl, daughter of an army martyr who lost his life in a terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir, had released a video last year in February holding placards where she, rather naively, declared that “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him.” She was trolled and allegedly received even death threats for this comment.
It was argued that free speech was under attack if a 20-something girl can’t express herself through videos and placards. She received support and became a household name after relentless media coverage. Sportspersons who didn’t agree with her were trolled and abused by self-styled liberals. Ironically, disagreeing with her was made a crime.
Months later, in October last year, the same Gurmehar Kaur who was made an icon of free and young India, was accused of doing the exact same thing she had complained of – issuing threats to people because she did not like something that was posted online. The victims, a bunch of young college kids, run a page on Facebook, ‘Squint Neon’ and ‘dared’ them to post an image from the video she had posted online.
The admins of the page, younger than Gurmehar, had decided to go public with the ‘threat’ they received, pointing out how a girl, painted as an icon and champion of free speech was using various means to curb the same of others.
After publicly outing, instead of introspecting about her actions and stop the bullying, Gurmehar allegedly decided to attack the career and livelihood prospects of the boys. In a screenshot of messages allegedly sent by her, she is seen warning the boys with threats of a defamation case, police action, and a destroyed career where they may not get admissions in good colleges and may even fail to get a job.
Following the threats, admins of ‘Squint Neon’ page deactivated their page for a few days before reactivating.
It is rather tragic that Congress would invite someone who had used cyber-bullying as a tool to silence someone and settle scores as a speaker for their ‘anti-bullying workshop’ unless she is speaking of the time when she bullied kids over a meme.
Or maybe she is invited because Priyanka Gandhi is her favourite human.
