NEW DELHI: Congress indicted Bollywood actor Monday Kangana Ranaut of advancing the BJP’s political agenda through his actions and claimed that the ruling party had provided him with a security cover to allow him to openly defame Maharashtra and criticize the coalition government there.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said that Ranaut’s comparison of Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was false, reprehensible and would not be acceptable to any reasonable person.
However, the BJP quickly distanced themselves, saying that the actor had made an incorrect statement.
Surjewala said that the Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP government in Maharashtra will guarantee him adequate protection and uphold the right to dissent of his biggest critics.
“Even though a particular movie actress follows the agenda of Modi Ji and BJP, we will ensure her adequate protection,” he said at a virtual press conference.
“However, describing the commercial capital of the country as Pakistani-occupied Kashmir is naive, incorrect, political opportunism and reprehensible that no reasonable person will accept. We reject such baseless and politically motivated accusations that BJP launches through film actresses,” he said. . .
Surjewala said that unlike the BJP, the Congress party, as well as the alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and the NCP in Maharashtra, has the principle of upholding the right of dissent of its biggest critics.
“Security has been given to a movie actress, who is acting at the behest of BJP to smear Maharashtra, to openly criticize us under the BJP political agenda,” he also said.
The BJP tried to stay away from the controversy, and lead leader Devendra Fadnavis said the actress had made an incorrect statement, but that it is the government’s responsibility to protect her on the grounds of law. She said that even terrorists must be provided security in the land of law so that they are not attacked, while Ranaut remains an artist.
“It is the government’s responsibility to protect a person’s life. Therefore, although we do not support what Kangana Ranaut said and no one will support him, it is the government’s responsibility (to protect her).
“Because we do not live in the banana republic,” the opposition leader at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on the outskirts of Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai told reporters.
Ranaut has been granted Y-plus category security and will be protected by about 10 armed commandos who will work shifts 24 hours a day, Union Home Office officials said Monday amid controversy over her comment that He “feared” the Mumbai Police.
The decision is made two days before Ranaut, who is in his home state Himachal Pradesh and had compared Mumbai to PoK, said he plans to visit Mumbai on September 9.
Ranaut, whose comments led to a dispute with Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, said she felt unsafe in Mumbai after the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and also spoke about drug use in a section of the film industry.
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