Another legal notice to Kangana Ranaut over ‘derogatory’ tweet

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has sent a legal notice to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, seeking an unconditional apology for her “derogatory” tweet in which she had allegedly misidentified an old woman at the farmers’ protest in Capital as Bilkis Bano. Ranaut later deleted her tweet over the old woman after she was criticised on social media.

“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, DSGMC’s president, tweeted on Friday.

 

We have sent a legal notice to @KanganaTeam for her derogatory tweet calling the aged mother of a farmer as a woman available for ₹100. Her tweets portray farmers protest as antinational

We demand an unconditional apology from her for her insensitive remarks on farmers protest pic.twitter.com/AWNfmwpIyT

— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) December 4, 2020

Ranaut had tweeted that Bano also joined the farmers’ agitation over the new farms laws at various border points of the national capital. She retweeted the post with photographs of two elderly women, including Bano, and wrote that the “same Dadi” who featured in Time Magazine was “available in 100 rupees”.

Before this, a Punjab-based lawyer also sent a legal notice to Ranaut over her now-deleted tweet. Advocate Harkam Singh said Ranaut should have authenticated information before posting it on social media and demanded an apology over her tweets, in which she allegedly misidentified the woman.

“I sent a legal notice for a tweet misidentifying Mohinder Kaur as Bilkis Bano with an insinuation that she (Kaur) was available as a hired protestor for Rs 100. The notice gives Ranaut seven days to issue an apology failing which a defamation case will be pursued,” Singh said according to news agency ANI on Wednesday.

“It is to inform you that the said lady is not a fake lady. Her name is Mahinder Kaur and she belongs to Bathinda. She is the wife of farmer Labh Singh Nambardar. She in her life, has always remained connected with fields and filed work and she is the wife of a farmer,” he said in his notice dated November 30.

Diljit Dosanjh, Prince Narula, Sargun Mehta, Himanshi Khurana and several other actors have slammed Ranaut for her tweet.

Thousands of farmers have gathered at Delhi’s borders 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.