On Tuesday, Gurmehar Kaur, a 20-year-old student from Delhi University’s (DU) Lady Sri Ram College (LSR), declared her withdrawal from the students’ campaign against violence in North Campus. 

Kaur had lent her voice to students protesting against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), for which she says she has received rape and death threats on social media. 

Things took a vicious turn when she was questioned about a video she had put up about a year ago. Kaur was trolled on social media and her motivations were questioned on primetime news. The video in question made a case for peace in South Asia and was shot in association with Ram Subramanian for a campaign titled #ProfileForPeace. Subramanian, a 36-year-old, Mumbai-based filmmaker and “peace activist”, was responding to Shiv Sena banning Pakistanis from performing in Maharashtra in 2015. 

The campaign was reignited in 2016 when Pakistani artistes were subjected to a ban yet again in the backdrop of India’s surgical strike in September 2016. Kaur’s four-minute video has been the subject of much debate, which was part of #ProfileForPeace.

We caught up with Subramanian to talk about the video and what he made of the controversy around it. Here are edited excerpts: 

What was the idea behind the video you did with Gurmehar Kaur?

I started the campaign called Profile For Peace. This went viral and it was an international campaign. It was even spoken about by Mark Zuckerberg. Gurmehar has been part of my campaign. 

Every now and then, when I talk about Indo-Pak peace, trolls tell me, “You have no idea about people who lose their parents in war and what they have to go through.” So I decided to make this video to present her story to those trolls.

When the video was published on YouTube, the video went viral and was received well, as opposed to how it is being received right now. What, according to you, led to this shift within a span of nine months?

I think the problem is if you say anything against any political organisation, it becomes a problem for the system. Gurmehar’s last campaign was against ABVP, it is a politically-affiliated organisation of BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]. That probably became a problem for them. Now, BJP’s minister Kiren Rijiju is taking on a 20-year-old. This is the state of our country. 

This morning, however, Kiren Rijiju took a U-turn and said Kaur was a young girl and creating a controversy around her wasn’t right. What do you have to say to that?

I have absolutely no issues with a U-turn as long as the U-turn implies something like this: “We will make sure that Gurmehar is completely safe and nobody bothers her in future. We will make college campuses safe for women in Delhi. It is our responsibility as the government.” That is a great U-turn I’ll be willing to accept. 

You have been vocal about your support for her. Have you received any threats because of that?

Gurmehar has been part of my peace campaigns and my team for a long time. So obviously I’m supporting her. For me, the issue is women getting threatened with rape for speaking up. This is not a culture that we should promote. She has had to leave the city and now I’m sure all the trolls are going to turn on me. 

I find it absolutely ridiculous that you cannot wish for peace and that it can be considered anti-national. Guess who did this, ask yourself who did this? 

The government should ensure the safety of women in the city and make sure that girls like Gurmehar, who are fighting for the rights of women in campuses, feel safe. Gurmehar was made to feel scared and uncomfortable, which resulted in her leaving the city, crying.  

Since you’ve been in touch with her, can you give us a sense of how the last week has been for her?

She was very upset. She didn’t want anyone to talk to her or about her anymore. I tried telling her that her staying away from all this wasn’t going to help. But all the attention is bothering her, I think. I’ll have to speak from my side, I’m not speaking on behalf of Gurmehar anymore. Things just need to calm down. She is a little overwhelmed right now. It is not like she is not used to media attention. The film that I had done had gone viral and everybody spoke to her after that. The fact that so many big names were involved bothered her right from the beginning. It is not the media attention or anything, it is about so many people saying so many things about her.