An explanation followed the censure: Kangana Ranaut’s remark is not the party’s view; the BJP condemns the remark This article was written with the support of a grant from the Pulitzer Centre.
New Delhi: After her remarks about the farmers’ protest got her into hot water, the actor-politician Kangana Ranaut has been hauled over the coals by the BJP leadership. There’s even been a clarification to go along with the rebuke: the view expressed by Kangana Ranaut is not the party’s view, reads the statement issued today by the BJP.
The BJP’s condemnation came a day after its 38-year-old MP – thought to belong to the party’s ‘youth brigade’ – had told the TV channel NDTV: ‘The kind of crisis that happened in Bangladesh or any such country, God forbid, [did not happen in India] because the government took very strict steps.’
Kangana Ranaut does not hold any office in our party nor is she authorised to speak on policy matters on behalf of the party and has not been granted permission to do so. Ms Ranaut in her remarks made on television… has been admonished and advised by the party to desist from such comments in the future.
Kurup was not the only BJP leader to ask the MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi tread softly. Earlier, BJP politicians in Haryana and Punjab demanded that Ranaut keep her mouth shut about farmers. ‘It is not Kangana’s business to speak on farmers. Kangana’s statement is a personal statement. For people are knowing that PM Modi and the BJP are really farmer-friendly. The Opposition parties are working against us and Kangana’s statement is working against us so she should not speak on such issues, sensitive and religious issues, religious organisations,’ Punjab BJP leader
Her comments also drew a response from the Congress with leader Randeep Surjewala asking the BJP leader to “get well soon”. Mr Surjewalal, who is campaigning in poll-bound Haryana that witnessed year-long farmers’ protest, asked, “Were these just Kangana’s words or did someone else copy them? If not, then why is the BJP silent on the issue?”
Ms Ranaut, known for her provocative remarks, has been a strong critic of the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed three farm laws.
In 2020, she allegedly misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab who was taking part in the protests and called her Bilkis Bano – an elderly woman who had become one of the faces of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Law (CAA) protests earlier in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh. She had also said the woman was “available for ₹ 100”, suggesting she could be hired for protests.
The statement sparked a massive row that resurfaced when Ms Ranaut was slapped by a woman Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable at the Chandigarh airport while she was on her way to Delhi in June this year.
