Gurmehar pro-Pak, has no right to live here: BJP minister

Chandigarh: Haryana’s outspoken Minister Anil Vij on Wednesday said those who are supporting Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur for her campaign against the ABVP, were pro-Pakistan and should be thrown out of the country.

"It is very wrong and condemnable that Gurmehar has tried to do politics over her father's martyrdom," Vij, a five-time MLA, told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing state Assembly session.

He further said, "Pakistan ever since its inception has been fighting direct or proxy wars with India. And a martyr's daughter is giving clean chit to Pakistan, it is not appropriate. Such people have no right to live here and should be thrown out of the country."

Vij added those who are supporting Gurmehar Kaur too are pro-Pakistan and should be thrown out of the country. The minister earlier tweeted, "People supporting #GurmeharKaur blaming war for her #Kargilmartyr father are Pro #Pakistan should be thrown out of #India."

Notably, 20-year-old Kaur landed in controversy after she launched a social media campaign against ABVP. She drew threats of rape, allegedly by ABVP activists, and was ridicule by a Union minister, a BJP MP and former cricketer Virender Sehwag.

Last month, Anil Vij had courted controversy with his remarks that Mahatma Gandhi's image did not help Khadi and caused devaluation of the currency, sparking widespread outrage with even his party condemning his statements, which he withdrew later.

The senior Haryana BJP leader who is not a stranger to controversies, had said it was good that Gandhi's image has been replaced with that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the calendar and the diary of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) as Modi is a "better brand" and went on to add that Gandhi's image would be removed gradually from the currency notes too.

Vij, a popular face of the party in the state, was pipped by Khattar in the race for chief ministership after BJP garnered majority in Haryana assembly elections in 2014. His earlier remarks that those who cannot live without beef should not come to Haryana where a stringent cow protection law has been implemented too had raised eyebrows.

Over a year back, he had accused his own government of spying on him after coming across a constable standing outside his office.

He was also involved in a verbal spat with a woman IPS officer in November 2015. The IPS officer had then refused to leave a public grievance meeting on direction of Vij who was irked with her response to a query on illicit liquor trade in the area.