New Delhi: The Delhi assembly’s panel on peace and harmony has summoned actress Kangana Ranaut for her anti-Sikh statements, according to sources. Ms Ranaut has been asked to appear on December 6 before a committee chaired by Aam Aadmi Party leader Raghav Chadha. According to sources, Ms Ranaut has been summoned because of her “derogatory remarks about Sikhs.”
The committee said in a notice signed by its deputy secretary to Ms Ranaut, “The committee has received numerous complaints eliciting inter alia, outrageously offensive and derogatory Instagram stories/posts allegedly published by yourself on 20.11.2021 over your official Instagram account…” The summons document said Ms Ranaut’s “blanketly labelling (Sikhs) as Khalistani terrorists… has the potential to engender disharmony as well as cause wounding humiliation to the entire Sikh community.” Sikhs have filed a first information report, or FIR, against the actor in Mumbai, alleging that she used offensive words against them on social media.
Ms Ranaut had posted on Instagram, “Khalistani terrorists may be arm twisting the government today… But let’s not forget one woman… The only woman prime minister ne inn ko apni jooti ke neeche crush kiya tha (the only woman PM who crushed them under her shoes). No matter how much suffering she caused to this nation… she crushed them like mosquitoes at the cost of her own life… Lekin desh k tukde nahi hone diye (but she did not let the nation get divided).” Her remark was interpreted as a reference to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who was killed in October 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards. Following the riots, about 3,000 people were killed, with armed men targeting Sikhs across Delhi, destroying and vandalising homes, shops, and gurdwaras.