Gurmehar Kaur, a 20 years old student, almost unknown to a nation of 1.25 billions of people a week ago, is now a hero and victim simultaneously. It should come as a surprise for anyone who is not acquainted with the framework of Indian media and intelligentsia in which they work, but once someone recognizes the pattern, the jigsaw puzzles reveal a larger picture. How did a 20 years girl having no any credibility and credential in any arena became a warrior of free speech and ambassador of courage against the alleged violence of ABVP? It’s all possible if you’re a left liberal and woman who knows what strikes the inner chords of Indian liberals. People like Gurmehar Kaur and Rohith Vemula are nothing more than “useful idiots” in the grand scheme of things in left liberalism and Marxism.
If we focus on the pattern of outrage which has unfolded after May 2014, we can sense a clear desperation by Indian liberals to undermine the credibility of Modi government and nationalist forces at any cost. Murder of Mohammad Akhlaq by people of his village for allegedly stealing a cattle and slaughtering it gave birth to the whole “intolerance” drama for more than three months and ultimately resulting in “award wapsi” campaign by eminent Indian intellectuals. However, the campaign was carefully withdrawn before the investigation reports were revealed. In another instance, suicide of a PhD student of Hyderabad University, Rohith Vemula, was magnified to such extent that it became a national level issue. In this case, narrative of caste struggle was carefully pushed, portraying the current government as anti Dalit and labelling Indian universities as bastion of Brahminical hegemony. Truth turned out to be completely different when investigation revealed that Vemula was not a Dalit, but left’s control on narrative ensured that this will be pushed beneath the surface. Coming to 2017, Indian left liberals were in search of an issue which would give them another such opportunity as they couldn’t find any such issue in past 6 months. Umar Khalid, a PhD student of JNU, notorious for chanting the slogans which call for destruction of India and defending others who did so, was invited to speak in Ramjas College, Delhi University for speaking on “war against Adivasis”. As expected, ABVP protested against it because freedom of expression isn’t an absolute virtue and Khalid is neither a scholar nor an intellectual prowess. This was followed by round of protests between ABVP and left wing student organizations such as AISA and SFI. It was alleged that ABVP beat other students while others were helpless victims. Needless to say, this wasn’t the true version of events as both sides had resorted to violence but left liberal dominated Indian media had decided to vilify ABVP and label it as an organization which curtails the freedom of expression of others.
When left realized that it wasn’t working well, they returned to their old technique of finding “useful idiot” and unleashing the politics of identity. They found Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of Capt Mandeep Singh, who was martyred in Operation Rakshak in 1999, who happens to be a liberal and a girl to make their case more compelling. She posted a picture, holding a placard which says that she isn’t afraid of ABVP and all the students of India are with her. It is unknown to me that how did she determine that all students are with her. People found that she had posted a video in 2016 in which she says that Pakistan didn’t kill her father but war did. Within hours, she became a free speech warrior who had the audacity to challenge “hypernationalism”. However, the liberal tribe of India forgot that freedom of expression is a two way street where one has to understand that other will also exercise his freedom of expression. People on social media were quick to counter her ignorance and stupidity with logic, facts, and some subtle sarcasm. Amidst this, one twitter handle issued rape threat against her. Without any delay, Indian liberal intelligentsia had determined that the person who had issued the threat was a nationalist, and Gurmehar Kaur ran to Barkha Dutt instead of running to police station.
With this one tweet, the narrative completely changed. From free speech, it became “nationalists issuing rape threat to daughter of a martyr who challenged the dominant narrative”. Again, the truth never mattered to these liberals but they seldom bother about it. Everyone who didn’t agree with liberals, exposed their logical fallacy, underscored the utter ignorance in Gurmehar’s stance was referred as “troll”. It’s interesting to note that when liberals actually “troll”, as they did last year when a 15 years old girl Jahnavi, had challenged Kanhaiya Kumar for debate, they call it “dissent” while right wing’s genuine criticism is reduced to mere trolling. The ideology and content figured nowhere in discussion, all which mattered was the narrative which says that a girl was silenced and mocked. Websites like Huffington Post and Feminism in India even wrote articles saying that Indian men can’t tolerate an outspoken girl. What they essentially want to say is that a liberal and feminist shouldn’t be challenged at any cost and if you dare to do so, you will be labelled as ‘misogynist’ troll.
The girl isn’t as innocent as she is being shown by elites as she had shared stage with breaking India forces such as Kavita Krishnan, John Dayal, Priya Pillai etc in the past and Ram Subramanian is her media adviser who also is the media adviser of Arvind Kejriwal. It was also revealed that she has Canadian passport. The biggest lie which was perpetrated and repeated for countless times in this controversy was her claim that her father died in Kargil War while her father had died in Operation Rakshak, fighting with the Pakistan sponsored terrorists. The artificial plantation of Gurmehar Kaur in this series of events reveal that how left is determined to keep the academia as their last bastion when they’re losing their political relevance. The misplaced idealism which teaches Gurmehar that war killed her father instead of Pakistan is result of Marxist indoctrination of students in Indian universities. Indian academia, especially humanities, is completely dominated by Marxists and liberals, having no room for other ideology. They’re extremely hostile of other ideologies in their conduct, which can be seen from the fact that noted economist, Jagdish Bhagvati was forced to leave Delhi School of Economics in 1950s and Baba Ramdev was not allowed to speak in JNU.
Instead of universities being the place of learning and intellectual inquiry, the campuses have become the places for ideological indoctrination of Marxism and liberalism. Due to this phenomenon, Shashi Tharoor appeals others to let Gurmehar Kaur pursue her idealism, as if criticizing her and showing the reality will lead to the crumbling of her perceived world. Be it whether American universities or Indian universities, there is a widespread campaign by left against free speech in which they determine what one should speak. If people’s opinion and viewpoints are not challenged then they’ll never know the flaws of their opinions, but left wants to insulate from any such challenge by suppressing such criticism. In this episode also, people are being told by intellectuals that they can’t criticise the idealism of that girl while successfully changing the narrative. Instead of having debate about the dominance of left liberalism in Indian universities, the debate has been shifted in the direction of trolling nature of Indian right. That’s the accomplishment of Indian left that it has again successfully changed the goalpost.
