A posting by a 20-year-old college student on the Internet has become a political topic with each and everyone jumping into the controversy to get some mileage. She blamed war for her father’s death a very wise statement. Through her statement “Pakistan did not kill my dad. War killed him” she was underlining the futility of war. The reality is that war and hostile relations kill people while lakhs suffer. India and Pakistan along with other super powers need to make a move towards living in peace. What she has meant has been interpreted differently with worst type of reaction coming from none else than yesteryear cricketer Virender Sehwag with “I didn’t score it was my bat…” What made Sehwag to reply in such away itself defies logic as the girl in question has lost her father during the 1999 Kargil war whereas the cricketer didn’t lose any one under such circumstances. Later on Sehwag clarified that his statement has been misunderstood. The point is why one should react to anything and everything appearing on the social media. One should learn to respect other’s freedom of expression but it does not mean that one can go to any extent and threaten other with physical intimidation like RSS-affiliated ABVP did to this girl in New Delhi. The Central leadership of the BJP has remained silent till date on the issue which itself is intriguing especially when most of the BJP leaders do not hesitate to join any troll war on any trivial issue. The genesis of the clash was an invite to JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid to address a seminar on ‘Culture of Protests’, which was withdrawn by the college authorities following opposition by ABVP. Gurmehar, daughter of Martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, had recently started the campaign “I am not afraid of ABVP” following violence at Ramjas college. The campaign went viral and received massive support from students across universities. It looks as if there is well planned move to foment trouble the way resentment is spreading from JNU to Ramjas to Panjab University in Chandigarh to Kerala to near home in Ramban area of the State. It appears intolerance has become the trade-mark of the people with the proliferation of the social media which is going to be a damaging trend so caution is needed.
