Shashi Tharoor hits out at Kangana over India's 'bheekh' Independence comment

Gulf Today Report

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has once again made sensitive remarks and drew ire from politicians and fellow celebrities. Kangana recently said at an event the Independence India obtained in 1947 was "bheek" (alms) and that the country truly became free in 2014, a reference to the BJP coming to power at the Centre under Narendra Modi.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that Kangana needs to read up on history and "has no clue."

Tharoor responded to the actor's controversial remarks on India's 1947 Independence as "bheekh" or a handout. In an interview to NDTV, the Kerala MP and former Union Minister said that despite the government projecting India’s higher stature such comments would only lower its status in the global arena.

Kangana Ranaut poses for a photograph.

According to the NDTV interview, Tharoor said, “You can't go around with the kind of really offensive rhetoric that we hear from the ruling party against a substantial minority in our country, treating them in ways that honestly are reprehensible.

You can't go around a silencing, dissent and slapping sedition charges on student leaders, politicians, journalists, and so on. You can't go around locking up people... having a Jesuit priest die in jail, you can't have all of these things happening with our people abroad sitting up and taking notice, you know, the world media is now all knit together. When things happen in India, they are reported abroad as well. And as a result, the coverage of India in the world press of late has become uniformly negative."

Javed Akhtar, country’s ace lyricist said on Twitter, “It is totally understand (able). Why would all those who had nothing to do with the freedom movement feel bad if some calls our freedom just a 'bheek."

Socia media users have demanded Kangana’s Padma Shri should be revoked while others said that she should be booked for insulting freedom fighters.