Amruta Fadnavis defends Kangana Ranaut's remark equating Mumbai to PoK

Amid widespread condemnation of Kangana Ranaut for equating Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and describing the city as “addicted to blood”, top Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis’s wife Amruta came to her defence.

Amruta, the wife of former chief minister and now leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis, said that freedom of expression cannot be suppressed.

“We may not agree with what someone has to say, but we must defend the right to express in democracy! Freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom of movement, freedom of press-cannot b suppressed! We can have counter arguments but beating posters of critics with chappals is a new low,” Amruta, a banker and an activist, tweeted.

Meanwhile, a social activist Santosh Deshpande has filed a complaint against her for her comments against the Mumbai police, Maharashtra and film industry.

“The tweets by the actress are in bad taste and served to inflame passions among the people… She has abused the freedom of speech and expression, and was misusing social media to spew venom at one and all,” Deshpande pointed out on the reasons behind his complaint.

Top leaders from the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance comprising Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress, and opposition Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, slammed Kangana for her remarks while protests erupted in Mumbai and other cities against the actress. BJP too has distanced from the anti-Mumbai comments of Kangana.

As a huge controversy snowballed – in which Kangana dragged the Palghar sadhu mob lynching incident, labelled Mumbai as “addicted to blood”, dared the Maratha Pride of Maharashtra, allegations of an ‘Islam-dominated’ Bollywood, besides comparing Mumbai as POK.

Shiv Sena activists reacted with protests, burning her effigy and pictures in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik and other cities.

On reports of BJP distancing away, Kangana tweeted: “BJP distanced itself from me ? Really ? When was BJP close to me in the first place? Am I a minister or a politician? I have never spoken to anyone ever in BJP, stop with these conspiracy theories.”

“I am an artist at heart I have big plans for my future as a creative person I know after SSR case solved everyone will go back to their lives, but mafia will come for me may be not directly I see now political parties have joined them makes me wonder where does that leave me?,” she tweeted.