Protesters in Punjab’s Kiratpur Sahib stopped Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s car on Friday, demanding an apology for her comments against farmers who had been protesting against the centre’s controversial farm rules, which were finally abolished this week. Ms Ranaut, a staunch supporter of the ruling BJP, had thrown her support behind the regulations, regularly referring to the tens of thousands of farmers who had been camped out on Delhi’s outskirts for over a year as terrorists, Khalistanis, and “anti-social elements.”
Ms Ranaut’s car was stopped by protesters waving flags and screaming slogans as she drove through the region with her security on Friday. She claimed in a video posted on her Instagram Stories, “I have been surrounded by a mob here. They are abusing me and threatening to kill me. This is mob lynching in public. What would happen if I don’t have security with me? The situation here is unbelievable. Am I a politician? What is this behaviour?”
Ms Ranaut told the farmers that the most virulent of her rants were directed at protesters in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh last year who were protesting the centre’s controversial citizenship law, which has been criticised for discriminating against Muslims. Her clarification, on the other hand, appeared to contradict her words from last week, when she called opponents of the farm legislation “Khalistani terrorists” in another Instagram Story.