In a video put out on Facebook, Mehak Mirza Prabhu said she had picked up the placard lying at the venue that she felt implied the freedom of people in Kashmir to express themselves and from the internet lockdown that started in August last year.
Mehak Mirza Prabhu, the woman who held up a “Free Kashmir” placard at the Gateway of India protest over violence at JNU and sparked a political firestorm, on Tuesday came up with her explanation and an apology.
In a video put out on Facebook, Mirza Prabhu said she had picked up the placard lying at the venue that she felt implied the freedom of people in Kashmir to express themselves and from the internet lockdown that started in August last year.
The placard held up by the 37-year-old has been at the centre of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s attacks targeting the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra, particularly after Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s sharp criticism of Sunday evening’s violence at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis led the counter-offensive over the placard on Twitter on Monday: “How can we tolerate such separatist elements in Mumbai?… Uddhav ji are you going to tolerate this Free Kashmir Anti India campaign right under your nose???”
On Tuesday, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh told Hindustan Times that the police had taken cognisance of the woman with the “free Kashmir” placard and will take legal action against her.
“We have requested the protestors to not carry any such placard which will land them in trouble,” he said.
Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut also weighed in, declaring that his government would not tolerate anyone talking of freedom of Kashmir from India.
In her Facebook post that she called the “truth behind the Lady holding the placard “Free Kashmir”, Tejal Prabhu said the impression being created on social media about the placard had come as an “absolute shock” to her.
“The placard meant freedom to express themselves, freedom from the internet lockdown which many people have been voicing for. I was voicing my solidarity for basic constitutional rights,” she wrote on Facebook.
In the 3-minute video, she outlined the sequence of events at the Gateway of India protest and her thoughts.
“So I was moving around and saw a bunch of people painting placards of all sorts like NRC, CAA, JNU students, etc. One more placard reading a message ‘Free Kashmir’ was also kept there. So let me tell you that I am not a Kashmiri, my surname is Prabhu and I am a Maharashtrian. I am born and brought up in Mumbai. So the narrative which has been put out is absolutely wrong.
“So when I saw the placard, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘we are here to talk about the freedom of basic constitutional rights’. And right now the internet is shut down for the last five months for the people of Kashmir. If we say that they (the Kashniris) are like us, so they should be equally treated like us, they should also get basic rights which we are getting. They should also have freedom to express themselves. So keeping this thing in mind, I picked up the placard,” she said.
“I was quietly standing and having flower (red rose) in my hand to spread a message saying let’s offer peace, let’s make peace together. It was the only intention to pick up the placard. That has been blown out of proportion and I don’t know how to deal with it as I have been branded as if I am a member of a gang,” she added.
Prasanta Patnaik