New Delhi: Haryana’s Sports 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.

“Those who are supporting Gurmehar Kaur are all pro-Pakistan. Such people have no right to live in India and they should be thrown out of the country,” the minister, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party leader, told the media.

The Lady Shri Ram College student launched a social media campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student organisation, in the aftermath of the February 22 violence at the Ramjas College on the Delhi University campus.

The ABVP activists have been accused of assaulting students and teachers.

Facing death and rape threats, and criticism from several quarters including union ministers, Gurmehar Kaur, daughter of a slain Army officer, on Tuesday announced withdrawing the campaign.

Accused of bullying Kaur, ex-cricketer Virender Sehwag on Tuesday batted for the Delhi University students freedom of expression.

Sehwag, whose earlier tweet drew widespread criticism including from Kaur’s college teachers, clarified that bullying wasn’t his intention.

“My tweet was an attempt to be facetious rather than one to bully anyone over their opinion. Agreement or disagreement wasn’t even a factor,” he tweeted.

Sehwag also slammed the death and rape threats which Kaur has been getting after her campaign against the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

“She has a right to express her views and anyone who threatens her with violence or rape is the lowest form of life,” he said. “Everyone has a right to express their views without being bullied or threatened.”

Cricketer Gautam Gambhir on Wednesday voiced support for Kaur.

Gambhir, who termed that mocking or “ganging up” against Kaur, a martyr’s daughter, for her views on the horrors of war was “despicable”, is in sharp contrast to his former India opening partner Virender Sehwag’s take on the issue.

“We live in a free country where everyone is entitled to their opinion. If a daughter who lost her father puts up posts about the horrors of war with the intention of achieving peace she has all the right to,” Gambhir said in a video on Twitter.

“It is not an opportunity for everyone to show how patriotic they are and gang up on her to mock her. She is entitled to her opinion just as every other citizen is. Everyone may or may not agree with it but mocking her for it is despicable,” he added.

Gambhir, in his statement, further said that he has utmost respect for the Indian Army, but the recent events have left him with a sense of disappointment.

Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Sehwag clarified that his social media post in reply to Kaur was an “attempt to be facetious” rather than one to bully anyone over their opinion.

“My tweet was an attempt to be facetious rather than one to bully anyone over their opinion. Agreement or disagreement wasn’t even a factor,” he said in his first tweet.

“She has a right to express her views and anyone who threatens her with violence or rape is the lowest form of life.”

“Everyone has a right to express their views without being bullied or threatened. Gurmehar Kaur or the Phogat sisters,” Sehwag wrote in his third tweet.

Kaur is the daughter of Captain Mandeep Singh, who was killed in a militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on August 6, 1999, four days after Pakistani troops withdrew from Kargil.