Actress Kangana Ranaut, a BJP MP from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, may have said that she regretted her provocative suggestion that Indian farmers must request PM Narendra Modi to reenact the three controversial farm laws, but there is no knowing when she will fire another inappropriate salvo to once again put her party and its leadership in an embarrassing situation.
Her latest statement and its recantation do not underscore heartfelt repentance but only draw attention to her being a repeat offender.
Already, her public views over the now-scrapped farm laws have negatively impacted the party’s flagging electoral campaign in Haryana. With little political comprehension that the electoral narrative in the state is primarily centred on three verticals — kisan, jawan and pehelwan (farmers, soldiers and wrestlers) — Ranaut made several abominable claims, not once but at least twice over a month-long period.
She has not stopped even after being chastised last month by the party leadership, including BJP President JP Nadda when she said that during the farmers’ stir against the three farm laws, "bodies were seen hanging and rapes were taking place." This has led to many within the party saying that the decision to nominate her as a Lok Sabha candidate was wrong, especially because of her long history of public volatility and inability to stick to discipline.
While Ranaut’s vituperation has surfaced repeatedly over her nearly two-decades-long cine career, her recent infuriation is certainly triggered by the non-release of her film, the biographical and political drama, Emergency, held up by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). In one of their recent media interactions, she claimed that the CBFC was a “redundant body” but contradictorily demanded that OTT platforms be brought under its purview.
Indeed, conversations with some functionaries within the ruling party suggest that although none of these sentiments have been formally articulated, it is well known that Ranaut has, in her stint as MP so far, proven herself to be a “glamorous Sadhvi Pragya.”
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Trouble started with an interview last month in which she claimed that a ‘foreign hand’ propped up the farmers’ stir and that the protests may well have snowballed into a “Bangladesh-like situation in India if not for strong measures taken by the Modi government.”
The actress, who displays symptoms of being a chronic patient of foot-in-the-mouth disease, repeated several of those startling suggestions, including the recent one that the laws should be re-promulgated.
At a religious fair in the Nachan Assembly constituency, which is part of her constituency, Ranaut said:
The repealed farm laws should be brought back. I understand it may become controversial, but I think these farmer-welfare-oriented laws should return. Farmers should demand these laws themselves. Just as farmers in other regions are benefiting, there should be no obstacles to their development.
After her latest damaging outburst, the BJP initially did not respond with the alacrity required during the ongoing electoral campaign in Haryana. It merely issued a statement stating that her views were not the opinion of the party:
The BJP expresses disagreement with the statement of Kangana Ranaut. On behalf of the party, Kangana Ranaut is neither permitted nor authorised to make statements on party policy issues. On behalf of the BJP, Ms Kangana Ranaut has been directed not to make any such statement in future.
Thereafter, the party added the platitudinous declaration that the BJP remained “determined to follow the principles of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, and Sabka Prayas’ and social harmony.”
After the last salvo was fired by the actress, it was left to senior Punjab BJP leader Harjit Garewal to make a counter-charge. He was unambiguous in his advice to Ranaut to refrain from making inflammatory statements and that it was not her remit to speak on farmers' issues. “The Opposition parties are working against us and Kangana's statement is doing the same,” Garewal added. Eventually, on 25 September, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia posted a video stating that Ranaut’s statement was a personal observation and the party condemned it.
The BJP is clearly at a loss over how to ensure that Ranaut does not continue to make extremely damaging statements. Her comments last month led to the Himachal Pradesh Assembly adopting a resolution supported by the Congress to condemn her comments. Not to be left behind, the Aam Aadmi Party held protests at several places in Haryana. A Buddhi Shuddi Yagna to seek shudhbuddhi (good sense) for Ranaut was also performed by Haryana farmers in Kaithal.
During discussions that preceded the adoption of the resolution in the Himachal Assembly, the Union Government, particularly the Ministry of External Affairs was asked to “respond to her claims, which undermine the nation's foreign policy.” The resolution in Himachal was passed a day after Ranaut posted a clip of her interview with the Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar in which she made her "Bangladesh-like situation" remark.
After the motion was adopted by the Himachal Assembly, Nadda summoned Ranaut for a meeting to caution her. But this had little effect, and he had to call for her in quick succession. The latest episode merely demonstrates that the party leadership is unable to rein her in.
A party functionary I spoke to said that several of his colleagues “knew the moment” Ranaut was nominated as BJP candidate, it was a faulty decision. He explained that this was because of her “freethinking ways”, which are good for drumming up support for the party, but making her a representative was “little but shortsightedness.”
The functionary recalled the repeated embarrassments Sadhvi Pragya brought to the party’s doors in her five-year-long stint as a representative from Bhopal, a constituency in which she humbled Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh.
It is common knowledge within BJP circles that Ranaut secured entry into the exclusive BJP club on the strength of her statements, often outlandish, in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in recent years. But as recent developments demonstrate, it has turned out to be a not-so-prudent decision.
The party has limited options now after having made Ranaut an MP. Taking disciplinary action would provide her with an ‘open general license’ to make more public statements, even more embarrassing and probably more vicious.
As the functionary I spoke to said, there are many within the party who are wary of the leadership’s fascination with celebrities which began from the years when Modi started eyeing a role outside Gujarat.
The BJP’s experimentation with celebrities and film actors as MPs has been mixed from 1991 onwards when it distributed tickets to Dipika Chikhalia who played the role of Sita in Doordarshan’s Ramayana and Arvind Trivedi, known for the role of Ravana in the same serial. The party also fielded actor Victor Banerjee in 1991 but he lost from North West Calcutta.
Even though the intersection of cinema and politics in India is well known, the trend used to be more prevalent in the southern part of the country. The legacy of cine stars in politics dates back to the trend’s most iconic examples, MG Ramachandran (MGR) and NT Rama Rao (NTR). In the Lok Sabha, Sunil Dutt was among the earliest parliamentarians and had a long political career, broken only between 1996 and 1999 when his son Sanjay Dutt was embroiled in criminal cases. Amitabh Bachchan, who had a short stint, also represented the Congress.
But not all of the BJP’s cine-choices have been the right call. Both Dharmendra and his son Sunny Deol had very low attendance in Parliament. They haven't participated in debates and have barely asked questions. Hema Malini in the previous House was present only 50 percent of the time.
Actor Vinod Khanna was the rare one from the BJP who not only made a mark as a member but was also a minister and performed his role creditably.
Kangana Ranaut, however, is one card that has turned ‘wild’ and is in no way an asset.
(The writer is an author and journalist based in Delhi-NCR. His latest book is 'The Demolition, The Verdict and The Temple: The Definitive Book on the Ram Mandir Project, and he's also the author of 'Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times'. His X handle is @NilanjanUdwin. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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