By Sushil Kutty
BJP’s Mandi MP, actor Kangana Ranaut, is a raw nerve in the BJP’s thick skin and a bundle of apprehension for party president JP Nadda, who cannot seem to decide whether she is in-disciplinable or indispensable? Is Kangana Ranaut a “Congressi” at heart? For, she sounds like she is batting for the Congress with statements that the BJP cannot defend, comments that are harmful to the party and its top brass.
The party has to invariably refute her remarks and then grant her a reprieve with “it’s her personal view”, a defense tactic borrowed from the Congress playbook. Kangana is obsessed with farmers. With Sikh farmers in particular and farmers in general. She wants the 3 farm laws that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had withdrawn returned to life with a vengeance, why?
That is a pending question, which the BJP refuses to address. Kangana’s repeated remarks on farmers and on the three farm laws demand clarification. Now, Kangana has asked for the reinstatement of the “three farm laws” and it could lead to another sprawling farmers’ agitation.
It is not always that BJP spokespersons rebut with alacrity than when it concerns the three farm laws. The farmers’ agitation had left the BJP stranded and the Modi government in paralysis. For Kangana Ranaut to repeatedly talk about the three farm laws is torture. After all, Kangana’s glamour quotient has its advantages and its disadvantages.
The BJP spokesperson had to say “her remarks are her personal statement”; that Kangana Ranaut was not authorized to speak for the BJP. But Kangana Ranaut also doesn’t lack a thick skin. She is always butting in as if she’s the BJP’s “authorized spokesperson.” And, true to form, Kangana has once again sparked a controversy with her easy-going remarks.
The three farm laws had provided the Opposition ammunition to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP at the grassroots level. The farmers’ agitation paralysed the second Modi government and Delhi was under siege from all sides. So much so, the Modi government hadn’t yet said a word on how many farmers got killed during the course of the agitation? The claim that “750 farmers died” needs authentication. Nobody did a count and where did the bodies go?
There was the one body, of a Sikh who was killed and left hanging in a horribly mutilated form in the midst of trucks and tractors in the outskirts of Delhi. The three farm laws were repealed when it became clear that the Modi government didn’t have the will to control the farmer protests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to enact one of his many “surrenders” and it was nobody’s fault he cut a sorry figure.
Kangana Ranaut repeatedly reminds this with her thoughtless and insensitive (to Prime Minister Narendra Modi) farmer-bills related comments. Begging the question, what made the BJP field Kangana Ranaut in the Lok Sabha elections? It was not that nobody knew she wasn’t a stable person. Her various Bollywood exploits were all over the media. Politicians in general disliked her and couldn’t tolerate her outbursts. The actor-turned-politician always brings issues to a boil. On September 24 she did it again.
And the BJP was forced to “distance” itself from Kangana. This was the second time Kangana was told to back off, leave the BJP to its authorized spokespersons and not to her “own devices”. The BJP’s video message compelled Kangana Ranaut to withdraw the offending remarks, and she had to apologise for having made them in the first place.
The fact is, the Bharatiya Janata Party never runs out of patience when it comes to Kangana Ranaut’s flexible tongue. In the racing world, the less than thoroughbred maverick actor-cum-politician would have been retired and put to pasture from the political arena.
Here’s what the BJP spokesperson said: “On the social media platforms, BJP MP Kangana Ranaut’s statement on the farm bills that was withdrawn by the central government is going viral. I want to make it clear that this statement is a personal statement of hers. Kangana Ranaut is not authorised to make such a statement on behalf of BJP and it doesn’t depict BJP’s view on the farm bills. We disapprove of this statement.”
In other words, ‘kadi nindha’. But does that end the controversy? BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia did not spell it out and did not elaborate on the “BJP’s view on the farm bills.” Does the BJP still believe in the 3 farm bills or were they mistakes? Kangana Ranaut touched a raw nerve. Not long ago, she was warned after she made some “Bhindranwala remarks” that, too, were not the BJP’s views.
What is Kangana Ranaut upto, testing the BJP? “Absolutely, my views on Farmers Laws are personal and they don’t represent (the) party’s stand on those Bills. Thanks,” Ranaut wrote on ‘X’. “I know this statement could be controversial, but the three farm laws should be brought back. Farmers themselves should demand it.”
There were no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ there and the Congress reacted with “wrath”, calling Ranaut “habitually controversial” and mentally unstable. “Some people are accustomed to creating controversy, and the BJP benefits from her statements. She talks about farmers, Punjab, the Emergency, and Rahul Gandhi. There are other MPs who never make such remarks,” a Congress leader said.
The Congress shared a video of Ranaut on ‘X’ and said that more than “750 farmers were martyred while protesting against the three black farmer laws. Efforts are being made to bring them back.” Will the three farm laws make a return? “Haryana will answer first,” says the Congress. Chances are Kangana Ranaut was actually speaking for the BJP. (IPA
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