Glowing with the Padma Shri award that she received recently, actor Kangana Ranaut went a step beyond her peculiar hate speech. This time, perhaps in an effort to eulogize prime minister Modi and the BJP, she put a big question mark on the entire freedom movement saying that the independence we got in 1947 was not ‘real’, it was just a charity. We got real independence in 2014. (when the BJP came into power in the Centre).
She was speaking during an interview with the Time Now journalist Navika Kumar at the Time Now Summit 2021. Her statement soon drew attention on social media and Twitterati erupted in anger as many of them saw it as ‘anti-national’ statement and demanded that she be booked under the Sedition Act.
Many scholars expressed their displeasure over Kangana’s unthoughtful remark which belied the sacrifices of thousands of freedom fighters. Some netizens even expressed doubt over her sanity. And wondered whether it should be called madness or treason.
The actor off late has been in news not for her acting prowess but for her sensational hate speeches targeted at minority community and the Bollywood big wigs too. She earned the reputation of a distinct hate-speaker after Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide and the debate over nepotism picked up on social media which later on turned into a literal mud-slinging. Her Twitter account eventually got suspended. Nevertheless, Kangana has found a novel way to be discussed on Twitter with this flippant statement, irrespective of the fact that it has received a strong backlash on the social media platform.
