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Kangana Ranaut meets BJP chief Nadda days after party rebuked her remark on farmers' protest

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 29 Aug 2024, 05:30 am

New Delhi: Actress-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kangana Ranaut on Thursday met party president Jagat Prakash Nadda at his residence in New Delhi on Thursday morning, days after the parliamentarian was reprimanded over her controversial remark on the farmers' protests, media reports said.

Kangana was reportedly asked by Nadda, who is also the Union Health Minister, not to speak on any issue out of turn.

The Mandi MP, who spent about 30 minutes at Nadda's residence, has been cautioned ahead of the Haryana assembly elections, which is crucial for the BJP which suffered a jolt in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP is headed for crucial assembly elections months after returning to power without a full majority.

Reprimanding Kangana, the BJP had earlier said in a statement, "Kangana Ranaut is not authorised to speak on policy matters on behalf of the party and has not been given permission to do so. The BJP has directed Ms Ranaut to refrain from making such statements in the future."

The BJP's disapproval came a day after the 38-year-old BJP MP said that the farmers' protest could have led to a Bangladesh-like crisis in India if not for the strong steps taken by the government.

Earlier, BJP leaders in Haryana and Punjab advised the MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi to refrain from making inflammatory comments.

"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. She should not make such statements, on sensitive or religious issues, religious organisations," Punjab BJP leader Harjit Grewal said.

Her comments also drew a response from the Congress with leader Randeep Surjewala asking the BJP leader to "get well soon".

Surjewalal, who is campaigning in poll-bound Haryana that witnessed year-long farmers' protest, asked, "Were these just Kangana's words or did someone else copy them? If not, then why is the BJP silent on the issue?"

Ranaut, known for her provocative remarks, has been a strong critic of the farmers' protest against the now-repealed three-farm laws.

In 2020, she allegedly misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab who was taking part in the protests and called her Bilkis Bano, an elderly woman who had become one of the faces of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Law (CAA) protests earlier in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh. She had also said the woman was "available for Rs. 100", suggesting she could be hired for protests.

The statement sparked a massive row that resurfaced when Ranaut was slapped by a woman Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable at the Chandigarh airport when she was on her way to Delhi in June this year.