On 11th November, 2021 (Thursday), Kangana Ranaut while speaking in The Times News Summit sparked a stir nationwide when she stated that Indians were given alms or “bheek” in 1947 whereas we got real freedom in 2014 referring to the time when the BJP government became the ruling party. This statement of the actress caused mass hysteria as several known personalities criticized her for her remarks.

The Congress party condemned her remarks as being insulting to the Indian freedom struggle and demanded that her Padma Shri award be taken back by the government. The Congress also questioned the silence of the Prime Minister’s Office on the matter. It is interesting to note that she made these remarks two days after she got the Padma Shri Award (the fourth highest civilian honour of the country) by President Ram Nath Kovind on 8th November.

BJP MP Varun Gandhi while sharing a clip of the same speech by Ranaut stated that she had insulted the sacrifices of great leaders like Rani Lakshmi Bai, Mangal Pandey, Mahatma Gandhi, etc.

AAP leaders in Mumbai demanded that action be taken against her for her seditious remarks. The Shiv Sena too seemed to be offended and irked by her callous remarks. Even Bollywood celebrities like Swara Bhasker and Vishal Dadlani called her out for her insensitive comments and questioned the people heard clapping on her remarks in the now viral video clip. Dadlani also requested his followers to remind her of the sacrifices of our great leaders so that she may not repeat making such callous comments.

Before this controversy could die down, Ranaut yet again inflamed many sentiments by sparking a new controversy on 16 November 2021 (Tuesday) by posting a set of stories on her Instagram account wherein she didn’t even spare the father of our nation and stated that Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa i.e., offering another cheek when someone slaps another is “bheekh” and also urged her followers to choose their heroes wisely because she claimed that Gandhi never supported Subhas Chandra Bose or Bhagat Singh and was ready to hand them over to the British government. She also attached a newspaper clipping in support of her arguments. The actress who has always been in the news for her debate-stirring remarks seems unapologetic about her remarks as of now.