Gurmehar Kaur may have pulled out of the Twitter battlefield after jingoistic right-wingers harangued her — even issuing rape and death threats — for her pro-peace messages, but the fighter in the 20-year-old Delhi student hasn’t yet been silenced.
“To the people who are baffled by stances I have taken in the past, I have a very simple answer: I choose to believe in Ek Onkar [one god] and in Nirbhau and Nirvair [without fear, without hate],” she said, as the Fine Arts auditorium packed to capacity cheered her on.
Ms. Kaur, whose 2016 video advocating peace between India and Pakistan went viral in February this year, was in Mumbai on Thursday to receive the Punjabi Icon Award 2017 from the Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board. In her acceptance speech, the petite Ms. Kaur, thanked her mother for teaching her the values of forgiveness and courage. After her father’s death in the Kargil war, it was her mother who explained to her that in her anger, she could not hate a certain community for having taken her father’s life; that it was war that was to blame.
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On Thursday though, Ms. Kaur single-handedly battled a media battalion, eager for a quote from her. She did not say much to them, except to put on record her thanks for the award. She did not even answer a question on Kulbhushan Jadhav, who has been sentenced to death in Pakistan on espionage charges.
“To be honoured for bravery on the same day as the formation of the Khalsa Panth is extremely special,” she said.
Speaking on the occasion, Charan Singh Sapra, President of the PCHB and a Congress leader, said, “She's sent out a powerful message to the student community. Through this young girl, young India should learn how to fight for their rights.”
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More than anything else, Ms. Kaur had won a few hearts in Mumbai. The audience cheered heartily as she wished them a happy Baisakhi in Punjabi. A few celebrities jostled for selfies with the ‘brave young girl’.