FIR against Kangana Ranaut over posts on Gandhi family triggers political row in Himachal
BJP leader and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur questioned the police action, while state minister Jagat Singh Negi defended the complaint
An FIR against BJP MP Kangana Ranaut over her social media posts on the Gandhi family has triggered a political row, with the BJP accusing the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh of a political vendetta.
Former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur has questioned the police action, while state ministers have defended the case.
What the complaint said
The Shimla Police registered the FIR on Friday (November 13) following a complaint by Atul Sharma, a resident of Shimla. Superintendent of Police Gaurav Singh confirmed the case and said further investigation was underway, reported NDTV.
Also Read: ‘Women's character is always used against them to destroy them’: Kangana Ranaut
Sharma alleged that Ranaut's posts, published from her verified social media account on November 10, contained inflammatory insinuations about the deaths of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her sons, Sanjay Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.
One post referred to Congress leader Sonia Gandhi as a "mysterious foreign national". It suggested that her relatives had been killed one after another, eventually paving the way for her to become head of government. The post ended with the words, "How convenient."
Thakur accuses Congress government of targeting Kangana
Thakur said Ranaut's remarks were her personal opinion and that people had the right to express their views in a democracy. He accused the Congress government of targeting critics over social media posts.
Also Read: Kangana Ranaut and Javed Akhtar end 5-year legal feud
"The people who are taking care of the social media handles of the state Congress put out ... such posts against senior BJP leaders which are so objectionable that they cannot be read or seen, and an FIR should also be registered against them but despite several requests, no cases are registered against them," he said.
State minister defends action against Ranaut
Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said propagating false and baseless claims to damage an individual's reputation was unacceptable. He described Sonia Gandhi's book as a work of historical significance, covering events over several decades.
Negi said the book also analyses the roles of the BJP and the RSS, an account that he claimed had left both organisations rattled. He accused the BJP of resorting to low-level rhetoric because it could not provide a substantive response to the book. (With agency inputs)