Gurmehar Kaur on activism, advocacy and her new role in Congress supporting NEET protesters | Interview

The Congress party announced a legal support helpline for students facing police action for participating in the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) -led protest march in New Delhi on 20 July.

Activist Gurmehar Kaur, who works with the Congress party's youth wing, shared the details on 27 July. Kaur was accompanied by Vinod Jakhar, the president of the National Students' Union of India, the Congress party’s student wing and Richa Singh, Youth Congress office-bearer, during the press conference on Monday.

Former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as India's Education Minister on Saturday, 25 July, handing the month-long youth movement led by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) a major victory.

Kaur told LiveMint on 28 July that she has been working with the Youth Congress for some time. After the police action against students on 20 July, the Congress party’s team at Chhatron Ki Goonj launched an SOS helpline to provide food, medical aid, legal assistance and shelter to protesters, she said.

“Since then, we have sheltered more than 100 people. Our legal team has been handling cases of illegal detention, intimidation notices and internet shutdowns every single day. We provide lunch and dinner daily to everyone staying with us,” she said, adding that there was an ambulance on standby throughout the protests, and it proved crucial on the day Dharmendra Pradhan resigned, when police responded to students with tear gas and lathi charges.

"Our volunteers administered immediate first aid on the ground and made multiple trips to hospitals with injured protesters,” she said

On Pradhan’s resignation

Kaur thinks Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation is the bare minimum. “Until the violence and police action of 20 July, his resignation was the accountability we were demanding. But that day changed everything. Students, many of them minors, were attacked. Justice now requires much more. Those responsible for the violence must be held accountable, and the Prime Minister must apologise to the students of this country,” she said.

Why Congress?

On her political association with the Congress, Kaur said she believes the party has historically been a broad platform for progressive and secular voices. She alleged that the ideals of a secular, democratic and socialist India envisioned by the country's founding leaders are under threat from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I did not choose to associate with the Congress because I was interested in the conventional path of politics, or in posts and positions. Those things are irrelevant right now. I chose this path because I believe we are fighting for India and for its Constitution, and this is where I have chosen to make that fight,” she said.

Kaur also praised the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, saying she believes he is the only leader who would not compromise with the RSS and is committed to defending the Constitution.

Who is Gurmehar Kaur?

Gurmehar Kaur, 29, is an activist, writer and public commentator who first came to national prominence in 2017 during a controversy at the University of Delhi before moving to the UK for higher studies.

Kaur was born in Jalandhar, Punjab, to Rajvinder Kaur and Captain Mandeep Singh. She lost her father at the age of two, after a Rashtriya Rifles camp came under militant attack in Jammu and Kashmir in 1999. Kaur studied English Literature at Lady Sri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, followed by a master's at Oxford University in the UK. She has also been an ambassador for Postcards for Peace, a charitable organisation that works to eliminate all forms of discrimination.

In 2017, the then 20-year-old Kaur was in the spotlight for the first time, after raising her voice against violence on campuses in the wake of clashes in Ramjas College of Delhi University. Kaur advocated peace, from endorsing stronger Indo-Pak ties to free speech among youth.

Rahul Gandhi, the then Congress vice-president, praised Kaur for raising her voice against intolerance. Gandhi had then said that for every voice suppressed, there will be a Gurmehar Kaur.

She was named “free speech warrior” by Time magazine on its 2017 list of emerging global leaders. Later, she wrote her memoir, ‘Small Acts of Freedom’ in 2018, followed by another book on Indian youth in 2019. She later went to the UK, where she did a master's in Modern South Asian Studies at Oxford University after finishing her degree at Delhi University.

Over the years, she has spoken and written on issues including democracy, civil liberties, gender equality, education and constitutional values.

New role in Congress

Kaur just confirmed that she has been working with the Congress, particularly the Youth Congress, and has been involved in organising relief and legal support for students protesting the NEET paper leak.

“I have worked with the Congress party for a while now, particularly with the youth congress under the leadership of the youth congress in charge Manish Sharma, simply taking on more responsibility as required,” Kaur told LiveMint.

Kaur has also been working with the Youth Congress on Punjab Re-Root, an outreach campaign in the poll-bound state ahead of 2027 assembly elections.