Kangana Ranaut Slap Row: What She Had Said About Farmers

Kangana Ranaut, the newly elected MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, was in for a rude shock on Thursday when she was allegedly slapped by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the Chandigarh airport over her comments on the farmer protests of 2020-21.

At a time when a section of people were trying to paint the protesters - who were agitating against three laws related to the agriculture sector brought in by the Narendra Modi government - as Khalistani supporters, the actor had also made a few statements.

In 2020, Ms Ranaut had allegedly misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab who was taking part in the protests and called her Bilkis Bano, an elderly woman who had become one of the faces of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Law (CAA) protests earlier in Shaheen Bagh. She had also said the woman was "available for Rs 100", suggesting she could be hired for protests.

This had triggered a much-talked-about exchange on X between her and singer-actor Diljeet Dosanjh. 

Rihanna Reaction

Then, in February 2021, reacting to support for the protests by international pop sensation Rihanna, Ms Ranaut had called the agitators "terrorists" and said they were trying to divide India. 

Replying to a post on X by Rihanna, Ms Ranaut had called the singer a "fool" and said, "No one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA... Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies."

When an X user had pointed to a 2019 tweet by Ms Ranaut in which she had appeared to express her appreciation for Rihanna, the actor had responded saying she had taken over the account only recently and did not listen to English music much. 

"Oye tattu I took over my account in August last year before that it was a team fan page, mujhe na pop music samajh aata hai nahi main English gaane zyaada sunti hoon (I don't understand pop music nor do I listen to English songs much) . Soja aab ho gaya tera... (Go to sleep)," she had posted. 

Both the Rihanna and Rs 100 posts were later deleted by Ms Ranaut.

The farm laws were repealed in December 2021 and, days later, the actor's car was stopped in Punjab's Kiratpur Sahib by protesters demanding an apology for her statements against farmers. She was allowed to go after she spoke to a few protesters.

'Hit, Abused Me'

On Thursday, Ms Ranaut alleged she was slapped by the CISF constable while she was on her way to Delhi.

"I am safe. The incident happened during the security check at the airport. The moment checking was done, a woman constable in CISF in a different cabin waited for me to cross her and she hit me on the face from the side and abused me. I asked her why she did this, and she said it's because of the farmers' protest," the actor said in a statement. 

"What concerns me is the rise in terror in Punjab and how do we handle this," she added.