In a sharp rebuke to Rahul Gandhi’s recent comments on caste in the Lok Sabha, actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut expressed her disdain on social media. This comes a day after Gandhi claimed he was “insulted” and “abused” by BJP MP Anurag Thakur during a parliamentary session.
Taking to Instagram, Kangana Ranaut shared old videos of Gandhi discussing caste issues in public meetings. Accompanying these videos, she wrote a scathing critique in Hindi, which loosely translates to: “You know nothing of your own caste. Your grandfather was Muslim, your father Parsi, your mother Christian, and you seem like an attempt to mix pasta with curry leaves to make rice and lentils. Yet, you seek to determine everyone else’s caste.”
She continued her tirade, condemning Gandhi’s approach as crude and condescending, stating, “How can he publicly ask people their caste in such a manner? Shame on Rahul Gandhi.”
This controversy began when Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition, accused Anurag Thakur of insulting and abusing him during the Lok Sabha discussion on the Union Budget. Thakur had commented, “Those whose caste is not known talk about the caste census,” without directly naming anyone. He later clarified, “I had said that someone who doesn’t know about caste talks about the census. I did not name anyone.”
Gandhi, who has pledged to conduct a nationwide caste census if the INDIA bloc comes to power, responded firmly: “You can insult me as much as you like, but we will pass the caste census in Parliament. Anurag Thakur has abused and insulted me. However, I do not want any apology from him.”
In other developments, Kangana Ranaut, who won the recent elections and was elected as the Member of Parliament for Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, made her first parliamentary speech last week. She highlighted the cultural heritage of her constituency, speaking in Hindi about the traditional Kath Kuni style of house building, the making of clothes from sheep and yak wool, and the musical traditions of Spiti, Kinnaur, and Bharmour, emphasizing the need to preserve these endangered traditions.
