Kangana Ranaut meets BJP chief J P Nadda, further reined in by party

However, others claimed Ranaut met Nadda as part of the promotional campaign for her movie and that she handed over an invitation to the BJP president.

On Monday, the BJP had quickly moved to distance itself from Ranaut’s comments regarding the farmers’ protests in an attempt to contain any fallout in poll-bound Haryana, which had been one of the hubs of the 2020-21 demonstrations. In a media interview in Mumbai, a video clip from which she shared on her X account, Ranaut had said, “What happened in Bangladesh wouldn’t have taken time to happen in India if our top leadership had not been strong. In the farmers’ protest here dead bodies were hanging and rapes were being committed. When those laws in favour of farmers were taken back, the whole country was shocked. Those farmers are still sitting there. They never thought the laws would be repealed. There was a long planning, just like in Bangladesh. Such was the conspiracy … China, America, these kinds of foreign powers are working here.”

A BJP functionary admitted that her remarks were a concern for the party and had provoked a strong public rebuke as Ranaut has “an impressive fan following” and traction among the youth. Sources said the party has earlier too told Ranaut not to make public comments on policy matters. Some BJP leaders have complained about her propensity to field questions from an “overenthusiastic” media on “every issue under the sun”.

In Ranaut’s home state Himachal Pradesh as well, from where she was elected from the Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the BJP found itself in a spot over her farmer remarks. On Tuesday, the Assembly adopted a Congress-backed resolution condemning the comments, with Leader of the Opposition and former BJP Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur forced to clarify that Ranaut’s comments did not reflect the party’s stance.

“Our party leader had to assure the House that the MP has been advised to be careful about her public utterances. The ruling Congress members made a big issue out of it,” said a BJP leader. Another leader familiar with the functioning of the party in Himachal said during the Lok Sabha campaign, the leadership had told her “not to make public remarks without consulting state leaders”.

Another BJP leader said, “Ranaut loves to comment on (Congress leader) Rahul Gandhi because she thinks it will get her a lot of attention. But neither the government nor the party leadership is amused.”

In the past, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has cautioned BJP legislators and other lawmakers against making controversial and “irresponsible statements” that could take away the focus from his government’s development agenda. Last year, when senior BJP leaders objected to a song in the movie Pathaan, the PM said party workers should refrain from making “unnecessary remarks about “irrelevant issues”. On July 2, Modi advised NDA MPs — in the first such meeting in the 18th Lok Sabha — that they should not “waste time talking to the media”.

Apart from Himachal Pradesh, Ranaut’s comments have drawn heat for the BJP in Haryana and Punjab. “People elected her as an MP to resolve the issues of Mandi and not to make absurd statements… I would like to tell the BJP to control its MPs. The statements being made about the farmers’ protest are intolerable,” Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said.

Farmers’ outfit Samyukt Kisan Morcha said it would be forced to call for the MP’s public boycott if she did not issue an unconditional apology. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who was earlier the state chief of Congress, said the party “should have intervened much earlier”.

In Haryana, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers have staged protests against Ranaut’s statements.