Kangana Ranaut Attacks Mahatma, Asks People to Choose Between Gandhiji and Netaji
NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Bollywood Actress Kangana Ranaut opened a new front to attack the country’s freedom fighters and even went to the extent to describing Mahatma Gandhi as a “power hungry” person “devoid of any courage.”
Drawing a line between the father of the nation and Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose, she even asked the people to choose between the two as their idol. “You have to either support Mahatma Gandhi or Shubhash Chandra Bose. You can’t be both, choose and decide,” she wrote.
Stirring up a new controversy, Ranaut while standing by her last week’s despicable comment that India got independence in 1947 as a “bheekh” (alms) from the Britishers, she on Tuesday shared an old newspaper article and wrote, “Either you are a Gandhi fan or Netaji supporter. You can’t be both, choose and decide.” The newspaper had an old article from the 1940s with the headline, “Gandhi, others agreed to hand over Netaji.”
Kangana said that freedom fighters were ‘handed over’ to the British by those ‘who had no courage’ to fight oppression but were ‘power-hungry.’ She took potshots at Mahatma Gandhi and said, “Those are the ones who taught us, if someone slaps you offer another cheek for one more slap and that is how you will get aazadi. That’s not how one gets aazadi, one can only get bheekh like that. Choose your heroes wisely.”
Kangana claimed that Gandhi ‘never supported’ Bhagat Singh or Subhas Chandra Bose. “So you need to choose who you support because just placing them all in one box of your memory and every year wishing them all on their birth anniversaries is not enough. In fact, it is not just dumb, it is highly irresponsible and superficial. One must know their history and their heroes,” she said.
A few days ago, the 34-year-old Padma Shri awardee during a media house conclave had made offensive remarks about India’s freedom struggle and had said India’s independence in 1947 was not freedom but ‘bheekh’ (alms) and the country got real independence only in 2014 when the Narendra Modi-led BJP government came into power. The comments drew flak from several politicians and others.
Though she is not a member of any political party, her statements lately had been showing her leaning towards the BJP and particularly Modi since her tussles with the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra. Though apparently her intentions in making controversial statements on freedom movement was to malign the then Congress leaders, her attack on Mahatma Gandhi would embarrass the BJP also and more particularly the prime minister who is learnt to have handpicked Ranaut for the Padma Shri award last month.
The Congress on Friday demanded that the Centre take back her Padma Shri honour for insulting the country’s independence movement.
(Manas Dasgupta)
