The Bollywood star surprise visit in solidarity with students injured in the crowd attack caused a firestorm and sharply divided social media
New Delhi: Union Minister Smriti Irani in an event said Deepika Padukone must have known whom she was choosing to stand with. Irani said she chose to stand beside “people who wanted the destruction of India” when she visited Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) this week.
“I think that any person who has read the news knew where you are going to stand and knew that you are standing with people who celebrate every time a CRPF jawan is killed,” Irani said at an event hosted by The New Indian Express in Chennai.
“I would rather know what her political affiliation is than not know about it. I can’t deny her that the right where she will stand next to people who will beat up other girls who don’t see eye-to-eye ideologically in private parts. That’s Deepika’s freedom (sic),” she said.
“She made her political affiliation known in 2011 that she supports the Congress party,” Union Minister Smriti Irani said. “It’s her right to stand next to people who say Bharat tere tukde honge,” Irani added. The Union Minister’s 2011 reference was to an old interview of Padukone being shared by her critics, in which she apparently backs Rahul Gandhi for Prime Ministerial post.
A few days back Deepika Padukone was in Delhi to promote her new movie “Chhapaak” that released today. She visited JNU and stood with the agitators without saying anything. In the specifically poignant image, the actor was seen with her hands folded before Aishe Ghosh, the JNU student leader who was badly brutalized in the masked mob attack on Sunday.
The Bollywood star’s surprise visit in solidarity with students injured in the masked mob attack caused a firestorm and sharply divided social media. Her silent participation in the protest has been praised as well as criticized. Support for the actor pushed back against calls for boycotting her new movie. One BJP leader, Tajinder Bagga, even requested people to boycott the film.
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