Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has joined his fellow cricketers and sportspersons in reacting to the Gurmehar Kaur incident, against the backdrop of the protests against ABVP students in the Delhi University. Gambhir stated that freedom of expression was equal for everybody and the time had now come for all to learn about it and put it to use in every walk of life.
The 35-year-old tweeted this out on his handle on Wednesday morning and added a video along with a message in it, that said that he had the utmost respect for the Indian army and that their service to all of us remains unmatched.
“I have the utmost respect for the Indian Army. Their service to the nation and all of us remains unmatched. However, the recent events have left me with a sense of disappointment. We live in a free country, where everyone is entitled to their opinion.
“If a daughter who has lost her father puts up posts about the horrors of war with the intention of achieving peace, then she has all the right to. It is not an opportunity for everyone to show how patriotic they are and gang up on her to mock her. She is entitled to her opinion, just as every other citizen is,” the video message read.
The issue has garnered much news space in the past few days with several celebrities, including Gambhir’s former opening partner Virender Sehwag coming out in the open and tweeting a message out in connection to Kaur’s message. Sehwag responded to Gurmehar's post that read, “Pakistan did not kill my dad, war did,” with a message of his own – “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did.”
The message generated quite a bit of negative comments, which usually isn’t the case when Sehwag takes to his Twitter handle to post anything. On Tuesday, the former opening batsman clarified that the message was not directed towards the 20-year-old Delhi University student.
This is not the first time that Gambhir has been vocal about an issue that has generated a lot of public attention. When Dangal star Zaira Wasim was in the news for meeting the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and later apologizing for meeting her, Gambhir took to his Twitter handle to react to the incident.
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