For the past couple of years, Kangana Ranaut has been in news as much for her no-hold-barred public statements against the most powerful lot of her industry peers as she’s known for her movie projects and their critical and commercial outcomes.
The ‘Queen’ star, recently ventured out to cast her vote at the ongoing Loksabha elections and couldn’t help but show her clear political alignments.
The actress was heard taking a stingy dig at the Indian National Congress, addressing them as the ‘Italian government’ which ruled India.
Launching an attack at the party, Kangana said that it is only now that the country is ‘gaining independence in the real sense’ as we were previously ‘slaves of the Italian government.’
Here is what she was quoted telling media persons:
“It’s a very important day. This day comes once in five years. Please make use of it. I feel India is gaining independence in the real sense of the term on Monday. Because before this, we were servants of the Mughal, the British and the Italian governments. Please exercise your ‘swaraj (independence)’ and vote.”
The “Italian government” remark is apparently a jibe against congress chief – Sonia Gandhi, who was born and raised in Italy, before she married Rajiv Gandhi and slowly took command of the INC. The 72 year old politician gained Indian citizenship nearly 36 years ago and was appointed as party president in the late 90’s.
As much as we support the idea of a liberal political dialect and freedom of expression, Kangana Ranaut’s statement reeks of xenophobia and has no place in an intelligent exchange of words, when it comes to discussing politics.
Constructive criticism and debate on national-topics aside, questioning Sonia Gandhi’s nationality is no different than the kind of racism, those Indians who settle abroad face by the hands of some extreme local nationalists.
Would have been so much better if she would have chosen to criticize the party on more sensible grounds – like socio-economic development and corruption, instead of mocking and questioning someone’s nationality.
Let us hope the rich and the famous, who have been given the power to address the masses, learn to make more sense the next time.
What do you think?
(The opinions expressed in this article are that of the writer and do not in any way represent the website/forum)