Simranjit Singh Mann makes objectionable riposte to Kangana Ranaut’s remarks on farm stir

The controversy around Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and actor Kangana Ranaut’s remarks on the farmers’ agitation took an unseemly turn on Thursday (August 29, 2024), with objectionable remarks made against her by former MP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Amritsar president Simranjit Singh Mann, even as BJP president J.P. Nadda met with the actor and Mandi MP in New Delhi.

Mr. Mann, 79, made the disparaging remarks when a reporter in Karnal asked him to comment on an interview given by Ms. Ranaut. He said that Ms. Ranaut could comment on “rapes” as she had knowledge of the crime.

Ms. Ranaut had recently posted a clip from an interview to a media house in which she had suggested that a “Bangladesh-like situation” could have erupted in India during the farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws (later rolled back) but for the country’s strong leadership. She alleged that “bodies were hanging and rapes were taking place during the farmers’ protest”. Ms.