In the wake of the girls of an army-conducted tour of the country being trolled on social media, the Army said it is for the civil society to decide whether they should be subjected to such trauma.
When we set out to do the tour, there was no such thing except for a couple of statements. But thereafter, the kind of hate-mail that generated on social media... it is for the society to take it upon themselves that on one hand if they have their opinions, so do these children or their parents and their schools. Some of the comments were so low that I don’t even want to speak on them. So, it is for the civil society to see whether you should subject such young girls to such trauma.Lt Gen Satish Dua, General Officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based 15 Corps
Lt Gen Dua said the children or their parents and their school are entitled to their own opinion just like those who criticise them. “On our part, we went ahead with the tour with the aim that we have set for ourselves,” he said. “We were unmindful of the criticism if not ignorant of what is happening,” he added.
The army commander said the force would consider whether any action needs to be taken against the trolls.
The ugly comments that ticked off the army came from all quarters.
Here’s the original social media post by the Indian Army about the tour.
An ‘Awesome’ Experience for the Girls
Meanwhile, the girls thanked the army for providing them an opportunity to witness the historical and cultural heritage of the country.
We had an awesome time. The girls had some great moments together. We thank the army for this opportunity. We witnessed our historical and cultural heritage.Fozia
Another girl, Snober, said it was the first time that she had been outside the Valley and that it was like a dream come true.
Train experience was awesome. We also visited many places which we could only have dreamt of. We went to IIT Delhi, Moulana Azad Medical College, Taj Mahal, Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament. It was great.Snober
Responding to the trolls and their comments, the girls spoke to Rising Kashmir,
We were frustrated after coming to know how people were reacting to this tour. It is a disappointing and traumatising situation for us to handle. We didn’t know our pictures were uploaded on FB and we inquired about it from the army officials immediately. They promised to remove our pictures from FB and also assured us to probe the incident.The girls to Rising Kashmir
As a part of the tour, the girls visited Delhi University and Kala Utsav, MAMC, IIT Delhi Taj Mahal, India Gate, Kingdom of Dreams etc. The students also met Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani, some MPs and Nobel laureate Kailash Sathyarthi during their 10-day tour.
(With agency inputs)
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