CLAIM
A post claiming that actor Kangana Ranaut slammed Shabana Azmi for the latter’s remarks on Navratri has been doing the rounds on social media.
This post was also shared by S Gurumurthy, part-time director of the Reserve Bank of India.
According to these posts, Kangana said, “This Eid lets pray that no Aisha is married off at the age of 6, no Shah Bano is given Triple Talaq, no Meena Kumari has to undergo Halala, no Fatima becomes 4th wife, no Shehla has to wear burqa, no Ishrat becomes terrorist and no Mumtaz has to give birth to 14 children.”
The attribution to this particular quote has been shared by individual users on Twitter and Facebook too.
TRUE OR FALSE?
The claim cannot be verified as true. There has not been any instance where Kangana is reported to have said anything remotely similar to the viral post.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
On going through Shabana Azmi’s Twitter account, we found that in 2017 she had tweeted the following:
“This Durga Asthami, lets pray that no Durga is aborted, no Saraswati is stopped from going to school, no Lakshmi has to beg for money from husband, no Parvati is sacrificed for dowry and no Kali is given a tube of fairness cream.”
Ranaut’s fabricated quote was assumed to be in response to this particular tweet.
A version of Azmi’s 2017 tweet went viral in 2019 and in essence said the exact same thing. The difference was that “Durga Asthami” had been replaced by “Navratri”. In her original tweet, she had also not mentioned “Inshah Allah”. Additionally, the post added the part where she supposedly prays to “Allah”, whereas she had said nothing of this sort in her tweet.
Shabana Azmi completely refuted these posts, stating that she “NEVER said this”. But, on going through her actual tweet and the viral post, it is clear that the crux of both the tweets are the same, with inflammatory details added.
USERS RESPOND
Meanwhile, replying to Azmi’s 2017 tweet on Durga Asthami, one user said,
“Also pray that no 15yr old Salma’s married off 2 old Sheikh, no bubbly Asma forced 2 wear hijab % no Zaira threatened 4 acting in a film!”
Another user tweeted the following:
These particular comments are very similar to the quote being attributed to Kangana Ranaut as a response to Shabana Azmi’s comments.
In addition to this, it is important to note that there is no single news report which can confirm the authenticity of the comment being attributed to Kangana Ranaut.
The Quint reached out to Kangana Ranaut’s manager and sister, Rangoli Chandel, for a comment. We will update this story on receiving her response.
RANAUT & AZMI DO HAVE OTHER HISTORY
It is true that Kangana and Shabana have butted heads in the past, but there have been no episodes in the nature of this viral post.
In February this year, Ranaut called the veteran actor “anti-national”. This was a remark over the latter’s decision to cancel her visit to the Karachi Art Council for a two-day literature conference after the horrific Pulwama terror attacks, reported India Today.
Kangana had said,"People like Shabana Azmi calling for halt on cultural exchange – they are the ones who promote Bharat Tere Tukde Honge gangs... why did they organise an event in Karachi in the first place when Pakistani artistes have been banned after Uri attacks? And now they are trying to save face?"
Shabana Azmi responded to this by saying, “May God bless her.”
In 2018, E Times reported Kangana Ranaut stating her disapproval of silence on the #MeToo movement by celebrities like Karan Johar and Shabana Azmi.
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