Kulwinder Kaur, a security officer at Chandigarh airport, allegedly slapped new BJP Lok Sabha MP Kangana Ranaut, claiming she was triggered by an old remark made by the actor about the farmers’ protest. Kaur, who comes from a family of farmers, said she reacted to Ranaut’s past statement, “She gave a statement… that farmers are sitting there for ₹100. Will she go and sit there? My mother was sitting there and protesting when she gave this statement…”
Kulwinder Kaur has been suspended and faces a police case following the incident. She accused Ranaut of “disrespecting farmers” as the actor was traveling to Delhi after winning the Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi seat. Ranaut later expressed her concerns about “terrorism rising in Punjab” after the incident.
“The incident happened at the security check-in. The woman guard waited for me to cross. She then came and hit me… started throwing expletives. I asked (her) why she hit me. She said, ‘I support farmers’. I am safe… but my concern is terrorism is rising in Punjab. How do we handle that?” Ranaut said in her message. Mobile footage that quickly went viral showed Ranaut being escorted to a check-in counter, where a verbal spat ensued. However, the video does not show Ranaut being slapped. Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said an inquiry is underway and assured that action would be taken against the accused.
Kaur, a Constable in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), was referring to a crude and widely criticized jibe posted by Ranaut on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020 during the height of the nationwide protest by farmers against three contentious farm laws passed by the central government. In the social media post, Ranaut had tweeted about an elderly woman seen at one of the protests and said she was “available for ₹100.” The tweet was deleted following public outrage.
Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab…. pic.twitter.com/7aefpp4blQ
— Kangana Ranaut (Modi Ka Parivar) (@KanganaTeam) June 6, 2024
Ranaut also made headlines in February 2021 after international pop star Rihanna criticized the BJP government over the farmers’ protest, tweeting, “Why aren’t we talking about this?” Ranaut responded, “No one is talking about it because they are not farmers, they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like the USA… Sit down you fool, we are not selling our nation like you dummies.” This post was also later deleted.
The farmers’ protest, which erupted in 2020/21 and has continued to resonate, potentially costing the BJP key seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, has made headlines both domestically and internationally. Ranaut has had several run-ins with the protesting farmers; apart from the 2020 and 2021 tweets, her convoy was blocked by agitators while she was trying to campaign in Chandigarh.
