The Delhi Assembly’s Committee for Peace and Harmony has summoned actress Kangana Ranaut on December 6 over her Instagram post linking farmers to Khalistani separatists after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the three controversial farm laws.
A day after Modi’s announcement last Friday, Ranaut had posted an Instagram story, which was cited by the committee in its notice to her.
The post says: “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. No matter how much suffering she caused to this nation... she crushed them like mosquitoes at the cost of her own life.... Lekin desh ke tukde nahi hone diye… even after decades of her death... aaj bhi uske naam se kampte hain yeh…. Inko vaisa hi guru chahiye....”
On Tuesday, Mumbai police had filed an FIR against Ranaut under IPC Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), based on a complaint by the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and the Shiromani Akali Dal.
The committee’s chairman is AAP, which is the main Opposition in Punjab, has supported the farmers’ agitation, and chairman of the committee Raghav Chadha is the co-in-charge of its Punjab unit. In the absence of police power, which comes under the lieutenant governor appointed by the Centre, the committee is the party’s tool to intervene against hate speech as it enjoys an absolute majority in the House.
The summons says that multiple complaints have been received against Ranaut for causing “immense agony, distress and gravely hurting the religious sentiments of the people from Sikh Community, thus potentially leading to a situation of disruption of peace and harmony in the NCT of Delhi by allegedly disrespecting the entire community and purportedly instigating threats to the life and liberty of the people from the aforesaid community”.
In a press release, Chadha said: “The Supreme Court vide its judgment in Ajit Mohan & Ors. vs. Legislative Assembly of Delhi & Ors wherein the Supreme Court has observed that the capital of the country cannot afford any episode of communal violence and thus the concerns of the Committee regarding restoration of peace and formulating preventive measures through examining various issues were neither illegitimate nor misconceived.”
The committee, at the most, has the power to recommend criminal prosecution of Ranaut to the police if she is found guilty.
In an Instagram story on Thursday, Ranaut said: “Kangana nowhere mentioned ‘Sikhs’ in her post…. Is Kejriwal’s AAP referring to all Sikhs as Khalistanis?”
On Wednesday, a British non-profit revealed a plot to discredit farm protesters as Khalistanis using fake handles on social media.
Several BJP leaders, including ministers, had also alleged that the protesters harboured sentiments in favour of the creation of Khalistan.
