Kangana Ranaut never ceases to surprise with the depth of her knowledge when it comes to recent history of India.
On Thursday she told a TV channel that Subhash Chandra Bose was India's first Prime Minister. "Pehle mujhe ye baat aaj clear karne dijiye. Jab hume azaadi mili toh the first Prime Minister of India, Subhash Chandra Bose, woh kahan gae? Tell me one thing, when we got independence, where did India's first PM Netaji Subash Chandra Bose go?"
Historians haven't got an answer to that. Justice M K Mukherjee delved deep into the question. His report, all of 334 pages, made none of us any wiser than Ranaut. He is thought to have died in a plane crash, but many believe he is out there somewhere, just like Kangana believes he is the 'first prime minister of India.'
Predictably, there was backlash. The Bharat Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao couldn't resist posting on X, "One BJP candidate from North says Subash Chandra Bose was our first PM!! And another BJP leader from South says Mahatma Gandhi was our PM !!Where did all these people graduate from?"
Kangana, we know, is still graduating from the school of hard knocks. She gets knocked for almost anything she says, and she says it so nicely too. We know now, and it might possibly make it soon into NCERT text books even, that real freedom came in 2014. We know this because that is what she claimed in 2021. "The freedom we got in 1947 was a 'bheekh' (alms), the citizens of India got real freedom in 2014." That is because the man who appears in her political dreams has been claiming to us that he has a 56 inch chest.
Not to be suppressed, Supriya Shrinate, who we know allows many people access to her facebook and instragram posts, made a prediction that has a ring of reality: "Don't take her lightly - she will go ahead in the list of BJP leaders". It may not be too long before Kangana replaces Smiti Irani as BJP's Poster Girl Number one in the game of Ringa-ringo roses and contests from, say, Amethi.
People of the fair city of Mumbai are still smarting under Kangana Ranaut's comparison of Mumbai with, of all places, Pak-Occupied Kashmir. We know that this comparison might well be seditious. That part of Kashmir is Indian, we all know that, we were taught this in school and our maps prove it. There are even seats in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to prove it. By gifting it to Pakistan, Kangana has done nobody a favour, and in the process made a very un-BJP like comment.
For those with hazy memories, let FPJ refresh it for you: Early in September 2020, Kangana Ranaut got into a spat with a certain Sanjay Raut. After BJP MLA Ram Kadam, claimed that the Maharashtra government and the Mumbai Police were not providing her protection after her expose on Bollywood-drug mafia nexus, Ms. Ranaut had tweeted, Thank you for your concern sir, I am actually more scared of Mumbai police now than movie mafia goons, in Mumbai I would need security either from HP government or directly from the Centre, No Mumbai police please. Raut reacted, We kindly request her not to come to Mumbai. This is nothing but insult to Mumbai police. The Home Ministry should take action over it. To which Kangana riposted: Sanjay Raut Shiv Sena leader has given me an open threat and asked me not to come back to Mumbai, after Aazadi graffitis in Mumbai streets and now open threats, why Mumbai is feeling like Pakistan occupied Kashmir? Maybe Kangana should stick to Mandi?