Bollywood Actress Sparks Controversy Claiming India Given Freedom in 1947 as “Alms”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 11: The noted Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut, known for her strong support for the BJP, has sparked off a major controversy describing the freedom in 1947 as one “given as alms” by the British and that India got real freedom only in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the prime minister.
Known for her disdain for the Congress and all other non-BJP political parties, though she said she had no intention of joining politics, Ranaut said Congress was nothing but an “extension of the British rulers.”
Her comments in a national news channel not only was condemned by many, the Aam Aadmi Party also sought to register an FIR in Mumbai for her “seditious and inflammatory” remarks and the BJP Member of Parliament Varun Gandhi, lately been critical of the Modi government, wondered whether Ranaut’s remarks should be termed “madness or sedition.”
Slamming her, Varun Gandhi tweeted in Hindi, “Insulting the sacrifice of Mahatma Gandhi sometimes, praising his killer sometimes, and now the disdain for the sacrifices of Mangal Pandey, Rani Laxmibai, Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and lakhs of freedom fighters. Should I call this thinking madness or treason?”
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) submitted an application to the Mumbai Police today, demanding that a case be registered against Kangana Ranaut for her reported remarks that India attained freedom in 2014 and what it got in 1947 was “alms.” The AAP’s national executive member Preeti Sharma Menon termed the remarks as “seditious and inflammatory.”
“The AAP strongly condemns the derogatory statement made by Ms Ranaut, claiming that India’s independence of 1947 was “bheekh” and not real independence,” Ms Menon said in a tweet. In another tweet, Ms Menon said they have submitted an application to the Mumbai Police, requesting action against Ms Ranaut for her “seditious and inflammatory statements”, under Indian Penal Code Sections 504, 505 and 124A.
Varun Gandhi, who had criticized the Modi government on the three contentious farm laws and had also slammed the party leadership on the Lakhimpur Kheri violence mowing down under the speeding cars four farmers and a local journalist, said Ranaut’s remarks were “an anti-national act” and must be called out as such. “To not do so would be a betrayal of all those who shed blood so that today we may stand tall and free as a nation,” Varun Gandhi said.
In an interview in a television news channel, Ranaut, who was recently given Padma Shri by the Modi government, had said she had no intention of joining politics but she was very aware, and as an artiste and nationalist she would speak about India’s freedom struggle.
Ranaut’s video is viral on social media with several celebrities strongly criticising what the actor has said. In the clip, she is heard saying that what India achieved in 1947 was “alms.” “That was not freedom but ‘bheekh’ (alms), and the freedom came in 2014,” she added.
Kangana responded to Varun Gandhi’s comment on Instagram and wrote, “Even though I clearly mentioned that 1857 freedom fight was the first revolution that was curbed… which led to more atrocities and cruelties from the British and almost a century was given to us in Gandhi’s begging bowl… Jaa aur ro ab (Go cry some more).”
Talking about Savarkar and the Congress’s allegation that he was not a patriot, Kangana said, “This is a very large subject. I have studied a lot and did a film on it as well. It is very clear that the British did not take India over by some democratic process, right? It was a forceful occupation of this nation. There were some battles here and there but in 1857, there was a decisive fight for freedom. What followed after that is the most unfortunate part of history. More unfortunate than what happened to Jews also. It was not printed in the media… whether the Jallianwala Bagh massacre or the Bengal famine. They went for Indians because they were able to curb the first fight…they left us literally starved.”
The 34-year-old who stands banned on microblogging platform Twitter over her incendiary right-wing commentary, Ranaut recently visited Savarkar’s cell in the Andaman for her upcoming film and said history has been rewritten by a group of people who have omitted that part. “What the British left behind in the name of Congress was the extension of the British,” she said.
