A day after Mandi MP and actor Kangana Ranaut’s controversial comments on farmers’ protest, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership reprimanded her and reminded her of her brief.
“The statement made by BJP MP Kangana Ranaut in the context of the farmers’ movement is not the opinion of the party. BJP disagrees with the statement made by Kangana Ranaut. On behalf of the party, Kangana Ranaut is neither permitted nor authorised to make statements on party policy issues,” the party said in a statement.
Ranaut had said the farmers’ protests in 2021 could have caused a “Bangladesh-like situation” if India did not have a “strong leadership”.
Following Ranaut’s comment, Congress party and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had lashed out at the BJP over its “anti-farmer policy and intentions” and sought an apology either from the lawmaker or the ruling party at the Centre.
Ranaut, who made her political debut in the Lok Sabha elections after winning from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, stoked controversy when she said in an interview, “What happened in Bangladesh, it could have easily happened here too… if the top leadership was not strong enough… The farmers’ protest that took place here… bodies were hanging and rapes were taking place.”
“The fact that the laws were repealed… the entire country was shocked… those farmers continue to stay put at the same place… they didn’t think the laws would have been withdrawn. There was a huge planning, just like in Bangladesh. Do you think such conspiracies are made by the farmers.. No.. it’s China, America… Such international forces are working here and these are ‘filmy’ people and will continue this way… they don’t care for the country… it can’t go this way…,” she added.
As the lawmaker’s remarks triggered a political row, the BJP said it had directed her “not to make any statement of this kind in future”.
“The BJP is committed to following the principles of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’ and social harmony,” it added.
“The BJP MP calling the farmers who sacrificed 700 comrades during the 378-day marathon struggle as rapists and representatives of foreign forces is another proof of the BJP’s anti-farmer policy and intentions,” Rahul Gandhi said on X, without naming Ranaut.
“These shameful anti-farmer statements are a gross insult to the farmers of the entire country, including western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, which cannot be accepted under any circumstances,” he added.
Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in October in Haryana, where farmers had extended considerable support to the 2021 protests that involved a larger number of farmers from Punjab.
Congress social media head and spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the BJP should expel Ranaut from the party if it disagreed with her comments.
“The one who has said this about the farmers does not have the right to sit in Parliament. Tell Kangana to apologise to the farmers or the BJP should apologise,” she said.
The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), a farmers’ organisation, also condemned Ranaut’s “inappropriate and incorrect” statements.
“It is extremely painful that this MP, who is a habitual abuser of farmers, has now taken the extreme step of calling Indian farmers murderers, rapists, conspirators, and anti-national,” SKM spokesperson Jagmohan Singh said in a statement.
“Despite insults and deliberate provocation, SKM has always ensured that the farmers’ protests against the anti-farmer laws remained peaceful, lawful and in accordance with exercise of fundamental rights given in the Constitution of India,” he added.
Ranaut must tender an unconditional apology to the farmers for her “inappropriate and incorrect statements and uphold the dignity of her office”, he said.
Earlier too Ranaut has courted controversy over her bloopers. In the run-up to the elections, attempting to target an opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav, she inadvertently ended up accusing her BJP colleague Tejasvi Surya of “hooliganism and eating fish”, which triggered a social media backlash.
As the video came under the radar of netizens, they started trolling Kangana and pointing her out “for not having proper knowledge of her party”.
Karnataka BJP had also come to Surya’s defense, denouncing Ranaut’s accusations.
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 Rs. 100”, suggesting she could be hired for protests.
The statement sparked a massive row that resurfaced when Ranaut was slapped by a woman CISF constable at Chandigarh airport when she was on her way to Delhi in June this year.
She had also been under the scanner for claiming PM Modi was instrumental in diffusing tensions between Ukraine and Russia and thus stave off World War 3.
Earlier, she was subject to massive trolling on social media for claiming Netaji Subhash Bose was the first prime minister of India.
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