Gurmehar Kaur exploited her 'brave' father's sacrifice: Prathap Simha

For the last four days, BJP MP from Mysuru-Kodagu, Pratap Simha has been receiving backlash for his tweet on Gurmehar Kaur. Speaking to OneIndia, Pratap Simha clears the air on what his tweet meant and why he believes that Gurmehar Kaur misused her position as a martyr's daughter.

The BJP MP posted a series of memes on his social networking pages on the Delhi University unrest and the political furore it had created. One of the posts showed Gurmehar Kaur on one side and Dawood Ibrahim on the other with the heading 'Soldier's daughter and Policeman's son', this, the MP claims, was from Shanknaad page on Facebook. "It was not a comparison. I did not compare Gurmehar to Dawood. It was an analogy to explain the immature nature of her statements. The post that was taken from a Facebook page was a metaphor to explain how stupid the statements seemed," Pratap Simha said.

The MP claimed that Kaur was misusing her father's martyrdom to make political statements. "Her father is a martyr and his name is being exploited to make political statements. Would we not pull up a politician's son or daughter if they misused their parents' position? How different is this then? Why, then, use his name?" he asked.

His tweets against Kaur had received massive backlash with people demanding that he apologise for comparing a martyr's daughter to a don. Most television debates around the Delhi university situation evoked his tweets. Unfazed, Simha believes that the 11-month-old video showing Kaur had nothing to do with the Delhi university incident but he would continue to question her political standing.

"The image used in the meme is from an 11-month-old video. It has nothing to do with the Delhi University clashes but we are questioning the political stands Kaur has taken since the video. The subsequent stand that she took should be seen as well," he said even as his twitter page was filled with images of Kaur sharing the stage with activists like Kavitha Krishnan and John Dayal.

Asked if he felt that Kau withdrew from the campaign due to the backlash and intimidation from social media, Simha said, "When you make political statements there is bound to be a backlash. She lacked the courage of conviction and withdrew as soon as she realised that she was being exposed. That is called escapism."

BJP Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad, in an interview, had said that it was wrong to make personal attacks on Gurmehar Kaur for her statements but Simha deemed it Ravishankar Prasad's personal views and that he was entitled to it.

Kaur withdrew from the campaign against ABVP on Tuesday after a massive social media backlash. In multiple interviews, Kaur had said that she received rape threats for being part of a campaign against ABVP. She decided to withdraw from the protest and asked to be left alone.

OneIndia News