When Jasleen Kaur roused social media in an attempt to make sure a man who allegedly threatened her was punished, things took a turn for the worse. Initially, the photograph of the man and her comment on Facebook went viral and the media lauded her for being a ‘braveheart.’ Then, news media reported that Jasleen’s account of what happened wasn’t entirely true.
The backlash she faced was bitter and accusatory, with celebrities like Sonakshi Sinha saying that they were “embarrassed and let down.”
In response to these accusations, Jasleen shared her side of the story with Youth Ki Awaaz. According to the article, she agreed that she asked the “boy” to follow traffic rules. He took great offence and threatened her with dire consequences.
Yes I told the boy- “Bhaiya red light hai (the traffic signal is red),” when he was about to go straight and cross the signal. He got offended, got off from his bike and started walking towards me saying, “Problem kya hai be tereko? (what’s your problem?)“. When I took out my phone to take his picture he said “Jo karna hai kar le. Ruk main pose deta hun, photo le (do whatever you want. Wait, I’ll pose for you, now take the photo),”... “Ab complaint karke dikha, fir dekh main kya karta hun tere sath (Wait and see what I’d do to you if you file a complaint).”
— Jasleen Kaur
She goes on to clarify that her association with the Aam Aadmi Party is incidental and that she couldn’t have used this incident as a publicity stunt for an election campaign. According to Jasleen, St. Stephen’s College where she currently studies prohibits its students from contesting elections at a University level.
Jasleen ends her piece by saying that all she did was try to prove that this man’s threats did not frighten her. By raising her voice, Jasleen says, she wanted to encourage other women to do the same and not let instances of intimidation and abuse go unpunished.
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