Dubbing Bollywood actress and Padma Shri recipient Kangana Ranaut as an “agent of hate, intolerance and rabidity”, Mahatma Gandhi’s great grand-son Tushar A Gandhi said here on Friday that it was natural that a “vicious and petty person” like Kangana to feel that India got its freedom in 2014.
On a day when the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders joined him in slamming Kangana for her statement that India got true Independence freedom 2014 and that the freedom that the country got in 1947 was “bheekh” (alms), Tushar Gandhi indirectly held the Narendra Modi government responsible for her the actress’ controversial statement.
In a statement issued here, Tushar Gandhi said: “Padmashri Kangana Ranaut is an agent of hate, intolerance and rabidity. It is not surprising that she feels that India got its freedom in 2014. Hate, Intolerance, Sham Patriotism, intolerance and oppression were liberated in India in 2014 when a very poisonous and vicious ideology gained dominance in India, personified by the Prime Minister”.
“So it is natural that a vicious and petty person like Ms. Ranaut should feel that India got its freedom in 2014. Purveyors of Hate got official sanction to freely propagate hate in 2014. This is what happens when a poisonous ideology is given official sanction,” he said.
“It is not at all surprising that subscribers of such hate would not feel that the sacrifices of our freedom fighters are significant. It is not surprising that such statements were made In a function attended by the PM. After all, today the PMO has become the fountain of hate that flows abundantly in our country,” Tushar Gandhi said.
Tushar Gandhi was referring to Kangana’s claim -- made in interview at the “Times Now Summit-2021” “Celebrating India@75, shaping India@100”, which was telecast on October 10,2021 --that India did not achieve Independence in 1947, that what India got in 1947 was “bheekh” ( woh Azaadi nahi thi, woh bheekh thi) and that the real Independence was achieved in 2014 ( when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister).
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena MP and chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut charged that Kangana had “insulted” the nation which is celebrating the 75th jubilee of Indian Independence this year and “she must apologise to the whole country”.
“She says that India’s Freedom in 1947 was a ‘bheekh’ (dole)… So does she mean that all the freedom fighters who have been honoured with the ‘Tamra Patra’ and other awards are beggars? She has defamed and maligned the whole country,” Raut said.
NCP’s National Spokesperson and Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik said the actress may have been under the influence of narcotics when she made the comments, alluding to Kangana’s ‘confessions’ in the past that she used to be a drug addict.
Asking the Centre to strip Kangana of Padma Shri award, book for her treason and arrest her for objectionable comments, Malik said: “Kangana is speaking as if she has had an overdose of drugs”.
Condemning Kangana’s comments, Maharashtra General Secretary Sachin Sawant said “this is the BJP’s version of ‘Jhansi Ki Rani’ who dares to slander the freedom struggle and sacrifices of the martyrs through her ‘Azaadi bheek me mili hai’ statements now”.
“It’s a pity that such puppets are being nurtured by the BJP deliberately… These parrots are not the real culprits but their master is,” Sawant said. On Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had lodged a complaint with the Mumbai police seeking registration of an FIR for sedition and other offences.
Simultaneously, AAP’s national executive member Preeti Sharma Menon had – through a memorandum-- urged Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to intervene and take up the matter with the Centre for withdrawal of “Padma Shri” awarded to Kangana over her public comment that the freedom that the country got in 1947 was “bheekh” (alms),