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Virender Sehwag and Yogeshwar Dutt on Wednesday offered explanations for their respective tweets mocking Gurmehar Kaur’s campaign against war while Gautam Gambhir supported the 20-year-old. "I have utmost respect for the army... mocking Gurmehar for her opinion is despicable,” said Gambhir.
Sehwag said that his tweet mocking the Kargil martyr’s daughter was an attempt to be “facetious rather than one to bully anyone over their opinion”. He condemned the rape threats and added that everyone had the right to express their views.
In an interview with India Today on Tuesday, however, the cricketer had asserted that his tweet wasn’t meant for Gurmehar and that it was meant as “plain fun”.
In a video posted on twitter, Gambhir said that while “everyone may or may not agree” with Gurmehar’s opinion, mocking the 20-year-old for it was despicable. “We live in a free country where everyone is entitled to their opinion. If a daughter who lost her father puts up posts about the horrors of war with the intention of achieving peace, she has all the right to,” he added.
Not Against Gurmehar, Just Have a Different View: Yogeshwar Dutt
Yogeshwar Dutt said he wasn’t “against Gurmehar Kaur", but just had a different view. Referring to Kaur’s picture with a placard that read ‘Pakistan didn’t kill my father, war did’, the Indian wrestler said “If Pakistan did not kill our soldiers then who did? We were fighting a war against Pakistan, weren't we?".
Kaur, a student of Lady Shri Ram college, sparked a social media storm when she kicked off an anti-ABVP campaign in the wake of the violence at Ramjas College on 22 February.
Kaur’s display picture, with her holding up a placard condemning the ABVP’s actions as a part of the #StudentsAgainstABVP campaign, drew varied reactions on social media.
Dutt’s earlier tweet mocked Kaur’s campaign against war, saying:
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