Social Buzz: A Kangana Ranaut faux pas; Congress response to ‘mangalsutra’ jibe

Kangana Ranaut and the wrong Tejasvi

In a faux pas during an election rally in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, Ranaut, while attacking the Congress and its allies, ended up scoring an own goal, hitting out at BJP’s Tejasvi Surya instead of RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav. As social media quickly caught onto this mistake, the former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister hit back at the actor-turned-politician in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Sharing a clip of Ranaut’s speech and the error, Yadav wrote “Yeh mohtarmaa kaun hai (who is this lady)?”

Ranaut’s intended attack on Yadav was aimed at the latter having been seen eating fish during one of his election campaigns last month. The BJP Mandi candidate claimed that Congress and its allies are unaware of its culture and thus would be incapable of running the country.

Last month, Yadav faced backlash from the BJP for consuming fish during Navratri.

Congress files complaint to EC over BJP video

Meanwhile, a political row erupted when the BJP posted a seemingly satirical video portraying caricatures of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The less than 30-second clip which addresses the Muslim reservation controversy ongoing in the southern state shows the two Congress leaders placing a large egg labelled ‘Muslims’ in a nest along with ‘SC’, ‘ST’ and ‘OBC’ eggs. After an explosion sound, a large hatchling with a skull cup and beard is shown staring at the three other hatchlings. The video concludes by showing Gandhi feeding all the ‘funds’ to the large hatchling, which grows bigger and pushes out the other three from the nest.

The video brought severe backlash from Congress as it filed a complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the saffron party. It demanded that action be taken against the video as such clips were a penal offence, and promoted enmity.

Congress counters PM Modi’s ‘mangalsutra’ attack

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that the Congress party aims to take away the ‘mangalsutra’ of India’s daughters in his election rallies, the Congress hit back with a video of its own. Refuting the “lies” and encouraging citizens to vote for a regime change, the video addresses complaints of mass unemployment the BJP-led central government has faced.

In the video, a husband asks his wife for her gold purportedly to hide it in a hole in the ground. The wife responds that her gold was already sold off due to her husband’s unemployment and for their son’s education. He then whispers “mangalsutra” in a hushed tone, gesturing to the necklace she’s wearing. “Mangalsutra bhi jayega agar tum isi tarha jhoote bhashan sunte rahe aur maante rahe (The mangalsutra will also go if you keep listening to and believing such lies,” the wife says. “Jhoot ka jawab vote se do (Answer the lies with your vote),” she adds.

The Congress party has repeatedly refuted the Prime Minister’s claims.