Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut responded to a derogatory comment made about her by H.S. Ahir, a member of the Kisan Congress, saying that when a man gets a ticket, people criticise his idealogy, but when a young woman gets one, they attack her sexuality.
“If a young man gets ticket his ideology is attacked if a young woman gets ticket her sexuality is attacked. Strange !! Also congress people are sexualising a small town’s name. Mandi is being used in sexual context every where, just because it has a young woman candidate, shame on congress people for displaying sexist tendencies,” said Ranaut in a post on X on Monday.
After Ranaut's candidacy for the Mandi Lok Sabha seat was announced, she faced a barrage of online attacks, led by Congress leaders and their supporters, including H.S. Ahir and Congress National Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate.
Ahir's derogatory remark "Mandi se Ran**" sparked outrage, with many coming to Ranaut's defense on social media. One user expressed solidarity with Ranaut, highlighting the challenges faced by women in politics. Another simply condemned the disrespectful behavior.
"People of Mandi will show Congress its real place in coming elections by totally routing the Party . This is the Only Language that Cheap Congressis understand," posted @rose_k01.
Meanwhile, after facing criticism for his comment, Ahir deleted the post and claimed his account was hacked and denied making such a statement.
Similarly, Shrinate deleted an Instagram post with a questionable caption about Ranaut, attributing it to a supposed hack and blaming a parody account for starting the controversy.
In the post, Shrinate posted an image of Ranaut along with the caption, "Kya bhav chal raha hai Mandi me koi batayega? (Will someone tell me what the This attack on Ranaut wasn't isolated, as other Congress supporters and leaders joined in.rate system in Mandi is?)"
However, After receiving criticism, Shrinate deleted the post and claimed that it was not done by her as her account was hacked and instead blamed her parody account.
In a post on X, the Congress leader said, "Someone who had access to my meta accounts ( FB and Insta) posted an absolutely disgusting and objectionable post, which has been taken down. Anyone who knows me will know I would never say that for a woman. However a parody account that I have just discovered misusing my name is being run on Twitter ( @Supriyaparody ) which started the whole mischief, and is being reported."