DSGMC sends legal notice to Kangana Ranaut over ”derogatory” tweets against farmers

PTI, Dec 4, 2020, 10:31 AM IST

New Delhi: The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has sent a legal notice to actor Kangana Ranaut, seeking an unconditional apology for her “derogatory” tweets against farmers and activists involved in the protest against the Centre’s farm laws, the committee’s president said on Friday.

The Bollywood star, who is known for her combative comments, was also asked to remove the particular tweets.

“We have sent a legal notice to @KanganaTeam for her derogatory tweet calling the aged mother of a farmer as a woman available for Rs 100. Her tweets portray farmers protest as anti-national. We demand an unconditional apology from her for her insensitive remarks on farmers protest,” Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of DSGMC, said in a tweet.

Earlier this week, Ranaut misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab as Bilkis Bano, the octogenarian who made international headlines during the anti-CAA protests earlier this year in the Delhi neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh.

She shared a tweet alleging that the ”Shaheen Bagh dadi” also joined the farmers’ agitation over the new agri laws at various border points of the national capital.

She retweeted the post with pictures of two elderly women, including Bilkis Bano, and wrote that the “same Dadi” who featured in Time Magazine was “available in 100 rupees.”

Ranaut was also embroiled in a bitter war of words with actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh over the matter on Thursday.

Thousands of farmers have gathered at Delhi’s gateways to demand a repeal of the Centre’s three new farm laws.

The protesting farmers mainly from Punjab and Haryana, as well as Uttar Pradesh, are worried the new laws will eliminate the safety cushion of a Minimum Support Price (MSP) and procurement system while rendering ineffective the mandi system that ensures earnings for various stakeholders in the farm sector.

The government has been in talks with farmer leaders to resolve the issue.