Actress Kangana Ranaut who recently faced an FIR for supporting her sister’s alleged hateful comments against minorities, has once again taken to social media to reportedly “call out the secularism of Bollywood and so-called liberals” and urge PM Modi to take “strict action against atrocities done on Kashmiri Pandits and their safe return to their homeland.”
Holding a placard that had “I am Hindustan. I am ashamed. Justice for Ajay Pandita. Murdered in Anantnag, Jammu and Kashmir,” in a video of Twitter she said, “We have often seen that talented actors of Bollywood or those who call themselves buddhijeevi (intellectuals) often hold such placards, candles, stones and petrol bombs take to the streets to burn down the country or to call for international interest on a topic. However, their humanity only comes out when there is a jihadi agenda behind it. But if someone else needs justice, such people don’t utter a word. The way a wolf hides in sheep’s clothing, the same way, jihadis hide under the garb of secularism.”
She added, “They teach secularism to the Hindus. There is a limit to reverse psychology. The religion which doesn’t only teach us to love humans, but also teaches us to honor other religions and nature, these people (seculars) are teaching them about secularism. What happened to Ajay Pandit in Kashmir and the state of the Pandits in Kashmir… How did Islam enter Kashmir? There are books on this. There was a trader called Shahmeer who took shelter under King Shahdeo of Kashmir. Shahmeer’s ancestors were Hindus who had converted and how Shahmeer changes the politics there and his dynasty became the longest ruling dynasty… This way, the population of the Hindus started declining in the past 600-700 years and is almost non-existent there. They are killed and rivers of blood flow there every day. This is true. History is witness to the fact that where Hinduism doesn’t exist, secularism doesn’t too. I would like to request PM Modi to send Pandits back to Kashmir, they be given their land and Hinduism be established there once again and that Ajay Pandita’s sacrifice doesn’t go to waste.”
#KanganaRanaut calls out selective secularism of Bollywood and so-called liberals and urges @narendramodi @PMOIndia to take strict action against atrocities done on #KashmiriPandits and their safe return to their homeland. #AjayPandita #JusticeForAjayPandita pic.twitter.com/gy6PxxkzEh
— Team Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) June 10, 2020
As per media reports, Ajay Pandita was shot at by unidentified terrorists on June 8. Pandita, a Congress Sarpanch, then succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. Swarajya Mag reported that the Pakistan-backed TRF claimed responsibility for the attack on Pandita. The statement by TRF said, “No political stooge/collaborator who stands alongside the occupational regime will be spared. Ajay Pandita Sarpanch was one of these political leeches who tarnish the image of Jammu and Kashmir. These are the main reasons for our occupational regimes to stay on our land the JK.”
SabrangIndia had reported how the late Ajay Pandita Bharti, too, was one of a kind, a brave Kashmiri Pandit, who returned to the Kashmir region to serve his people. He had many plans, and his life was cut short just because the state did not give him the security he needed, even though he had apprised them of the many threats he was getting. His words continue to haunt everyone who has seen what possibly was one of his last news interviews.
Now, after he was brutally gunned down, Sheen, Pandita’s brave young daughter, has controlled her tears and repeated what her father had been saying all this while. Speaking to Aaj Tak, Sheen demanded answers from the Union government and sought justice for her father. She reminded the nation that the government had not provided Pandita security despite repeated requests.
Then, putting the BJP in the dock, his daughter Sheen told Aaj Tak, “My father had asked for security. No one asks for security without reason. So why did they not give security? He was asking for what he should have got anyway. He did not get it even after he asked. Whose fault is it? Obviously it is the government’s fault.”
Why comments like the one Ranaut’s made are dangerous
Kangana Ranaut has been a serial offender against minorities in the country. Previously too she has come out in support of her sister Rangoli Chandel who had allegedly called for shooting dead “mullas and secular media”. She holds immense social capital and her most recent video about Ajay Pandita has 39.2K retweets and 98.3K likes. While it has been established Ajay Pandita’s death was not a religious issue, but instead related to the political dynamics there, Ranaut’s comments only call for more hate and vitriol against the minorities because she suggests that Pandita’s death was in fact a result of a religious divide.
Ranaut’s remarks are immensely irresponsible, for one, they not only reduce the real struggles of minorities to the rubble, but also add fuel to the fire of communal hatred. Targeting ‘secular’ people, it is as if Ranaut is targeting the basic tenet of the Constitution of India which denotes that India is a ‘secular country’.
Related:
“Obviously it is the government’s fault,” Sheen Bharti, Ajay Pandita’s daughter to the Centre
Ajay Pandita: When I am not safe, how can I say everyone is safe?