'Strip Kangana Ranaut Of All Her Awards,' Demands Shiv Sena After Actress' 'Bheek' Remark

The editorial in Sena's mouthpiece said, "the country will never tolerate such insult to Independence which was attained through blood, sweat, tears, and the sacrifice made by countless Indians."

Kangana Ranaut & Sanjay Raut. (File Photo)

The Shiv Sena, on Thursday demanded that actor Kangana Ranaut be stripped of all her national awards after her comments about India's Independence. She had said that, what India achieved in 1947 was "bheek" (alms) and the real freedom was attained only in 2014 when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

Shiv Sena feels this statement amounts to "treason". 

The editorial in Sena's mouthpiece 'Saamana' said, "the country will never tolerate such insult to Independence which was attained through blood, sweat, tears, and the sacrifice made by countless Indians."

The Saamana editorial is written by Sanjay Raut and is considered the unofficial position of the Shiv Sena party.

"The Modi government should strip Kangana of all her national awards," the Sena said. The editorial said that Kangana has exposed BJP's "fake nationalism".

"Nobody had insulted India's freedom fighters in such a manner before Kangana. Recently she was honoured with the Padma Shri award which had earlier been conferred to freedom fighters. It is unfortunate that Kangana was honoured with the same award," the editorial added.

Shiv Sena said the actress' "present political ancestors" were nowhere in the scene when India attained Independence in 1947.

"Our freedom was achieved through blood, sweat, tears and the sacrifice made by countless people of India. Calling it 'bheek' is a case of treason," the Sena said, adding that the "statue of Sardar Patel (the first home minister of India) must be crying after hearing these comments".

Kangana's statements have irked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi. He reacted by saying: "Should I call this thinking madness or treason?"

The Shiv Sena, a former ally of the BJP, currently heads the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

 

 

(with inputs from PTI)