DU girl, who launched viral online campaign against ABVP, now in Twitter war with Sehwag, Randeep Hooda

NEW DELHI: Gurmehar Kaur, the Delhi University student behind a viral social media campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was embroiled in a war of words with ex-cricketer Virendra Sehwag and actor Randeep Hooda after the two bigwigs apparently mocked her initiative.

Gurmehar, who launched the campaign #StudentsAgainstABVP following the violence at Ramjas College, posted pictures and videos of herself on social media, holding placards which read 'I am not afraid of ABVP' and 'Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him'.

The brutal attack on innocent students by ABVP is very disturbing and should be stopped. It was not an attack on protestors, but an attack on every notion of democracy that is held dear in ever Indian's heart. It is an attack on ideals, morals, freedom and rights of every person born to this nation. The stones that you pelt hit our bodies, but fail to bruise our ideas.

This profile picture is my way of protesting against the tyranny of fear. If you are a student in any Indian university, in any Indian state and you wish to protest against ABVP then take a similar selfie and make it your profile picture. Use the hashtag #StudentsAgainstABVP and copy paste this message along with it.

It's time for every student of India to unite! Jai Hind! Jai Democracy!

As Gurmehar's post went viral, with students from various universities across the country posting pictures with similar placards, Sehwag tweeted an image of himself holding a poster saying, "I did not score two triple centuries. My bat did."

Sehwag's tweet, which has been retweeted 20,000 times, has earned the ire and approbation of Twitter users. While some criticized Sehwag for comparing a cricket match to a war, others, like actor Randeep Hooda, spoke out in his support and said Gurmehar was being used as political pawn.

What's sad is that the poor girl is being used as political pawn and it seems you are a party to it," Hooda told a Twitter user who had called him out for cheering Sehwag's interpretation of Gurmehar's post.

Answering the charge, Gurmehar hit back with a fiery tweet.

"Political pawn? I can think. I don't support violence perpetuated on students. Is that so wrong?" she tweeted.

The literature student, who is the daughter of Kargil martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, also had a reply for those who accused her of capitalizing on her father's martyrdom.

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 "Don't call me a martyr's daughter if that bothers you. I never claimed anything otherwise. You can call me Gurmehar," she tweeted

Last week, Ramjas College witnessed large-scale violence between members of the Left-affiliated AISA and the RSS-backed ABVP.

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 the ABVP.