New Delhi: Mandi MP and actor Kangana Ranaut’s statements on the farmers’ protests are “not the opinion of the party”, the BJP said in a statement on Monday (August 26), adding that Ranaut is “neither permitted nor authorised to make statements on party policy issues”.
The party issued its clarification after Ranaut was seen in a video on social media saying that what “happened in Bangladesh” could have also happened in India “if our top leadership was not strong”, before speaking of the farmers’ protests.
Ranaut has reposted the video on X.
In the video, she is seen further saying that “when the farmers’ protest occurred here, there were bodies hanging and rapes were happening”.
She also alleged that the farmers’ protests were “planned” like the unrest in Bangladesh was and implied that “foreign powers” such as China and the US were behind the protests.
The BJP said it ‘disagreed’ with Ranaut’s statements but did not specify which of her remarks it was referring to.
“[Ranaut] has been directed not to make such statements in the future. The Bharatiya Janata Party is determined to follow the social principles of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayaas’ and social harmony,” its press release said.
Her references to Bangladesh come in the wake of violent protests there that caused the abrupt end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year term as prime minister.
In the days between her fleeing Dhaka and an interim government taking over the reins, there were attacks on some of the country’s Hindus.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the BJP ought to “expel” Ranaut if it disagreed with her views and that it must “tell Kangana to apologise to farmers with folded hands”.
“If you cannot do this, you should apologise to the farmers of this country. Saying ‘this is not our opinion’ will not work; those who insult farmers have no right to sit in parliament,” she added.
“Is Narendra Modi so weak that foreign powers are trying to create instability in our country?” Shrinate also asked.
Harjit Singh Grewal, a leader of the Punjab BJP, said Ranaut’s statements were “working against the BJP”.
“It is not Kangana’s department to speak on farmers, Kangana’s statement is personal. PM Modi and the BJP are farmer-friendly. The opposition parties are working against us and Kangana’s statement is doing the same,” he told India Today.
Thousands of farmers from northern and northwestern India rallied outside Delhi for fourteen months in protest of three new farm laws the Union government had passed in September 2020.
The protests did not die down and the Modi government was forced in late 2021 to repeal the laws.
A smaller, second round of protests occurred earlier this year over debt waivers and minimum support prices, but protesting farmers were not allowed to move past the Punjab-Haryana border, where some of them still remain.
Ranaut, who was elected to parliament following the general elections this year, was allegedly slapped in June by a Central Industrial Security Force officer on duty who was reportedly unhappy with remarks she made on the farmers’ protest.
