Ranaut, who the BJP said was asked not to make similar comments again, said “foreigners” were behind the farmers’ strike and alleged that “what is happening in Bangladesh” could have happened in India too if it wasn’t for its “top leadership”.
New Delhi: Mandi MP and actress Kangana Ranaut’s comments about the farmers’ strike “are not the sentiments of the party”, the BJP said in a statement on Monday (August 26), adding that Ranaut is “not authorised or mandated to speak on party policy issues”.
Ranaut was seen saying in a video on social media that what “happened in Bangladesh” could happen in India too “if our leaders don’t have the energy”, before referring to the farmers’ strike, following which the party released its statement.
In the video, she is seen saying that ‘when farmers’ protests took place here, there were hanging bodies and rapes.’
He also alleged that the farmers’ strike was “planned” because there was a conflict in Bangladesh and that “foreign countries” such as China and the US were behind the strike.
The BJP said it “disagreed” with Ranaut’s comments but did not specify which of her remarks it was referring to.
“[Ranaut] has been asked not to make such comments in future. The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to follow the tradition of ‘Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas and Sabka Prayas’ and social good relations,” it declared.
His message to Bangladesh came in the wake of violent protests there, marking the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year tenure as president.
In the days after she fled Dhaka and took over the reins of the interim government, some Hindus in the country were attacked.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said if Ranaut did not agree with his views, the BJP should “step out” and “ask Kangana to apologise to the farmers with an open heart”.
“If you cannot do this, then you should apologise to the farmers of this country. Saying ‘this is not our way of thinking’ will not work; those who criticise farmers have no right to sit in Parliament,” he added.
“Is Narendra Modi so weak that foreign forces are trying to create instability in our country?” Shrinate also asked.
Punjab BJP leader Harjit Singh Grewal said Ranaut’s comments were “working against the BJP”.
“Talking to farmers is not Kangana’s business, Kangana’s words are personal. PM Modi and BJP are farmers. Opposition parties are working against us and Kangana, the message was the same,” he told India Today.
Thousands of farmers from north and north-west India have been protesting outside Delhi for fourteen months now in protest against three new agriculture policies announced by the central government in September 2020.
The protests are not over and the Modi government is being forced to withdraw the rules by the end of 2021.
A smaller, second strike took place earlier this year over loan relief and minimum wages, but protesting farmers were not allowed to move beyond the Punjab-Haryana border, where some of them still live.
Ranaut, who was elected minister after this year’s general election, was allegedly beaten up by a Central Industrial Security Force officer on duty in June, who reportedly took exception to the words she said to farmers.
