Mandi MP Kangana Ranaut (PTI)
CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) president and former MP Simranjit Singh Mann on Thursday made a derogatory remark mentioning "rape" on BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, triggering outrage among women organisations.
The actor-politician slammed Mann for 'trivialising' the crime against women even as the Punjab politician doubled down in two successive posts on X a few hours later.
Mann made the disparaging remark when reporters in Karnal sought his comment on a controversial interview recently by the MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi.
She had then alleged that bodies were hanging and rapes taking place during the farmers' protest against the now-repealed agri laws.
“It seems this country will never stop trivialising rape," Ranaut reacted to Mann's comment.
No wonder rapes and violence against women are “so deep-rooted in the psyche of this patriarchal nation” that they are used to mock even high-profile filmmakers and politicians, she added on X.
Haryana State Commission for Women chairperson Renu Bhatia also condemned Mann's comments. Giving such a statement is an “insult to our daughters”, she said.
Raj Lali Gill, chairperson of the Punjab State Women Commission, commented that what Ranaut said on farmers' protest is "shameful" but Mann's reaction is "even more shameful".
Asked if the Commission has taken cognizance of the comments made by both, Gill said, "I will see what action we have to take."
Mann, 79, a former Indian Police Service official who has been a proponent of Khalistan, was in Karnal to attend a party event.
As the row escalated, he remained unrepentant.
The former Punjab MP said on X that he and his party always stood for the safety and security of women, and accused Ranaut of leveling false accusations against farmers. He charged that she derived “some form of thrill” in spreading misinformation about Sikhs, farmers and farm labourers.
"Her concern on crime against women in India is something she must question her own ruling party about. Equality and safety of our women is totally compromised in India today," Mann added.
Emerging from a Punjab cabinet meeting in Chandigarh, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema also slammed the BJP MP over her recent interview, saying she needed “mental treatment”. At that time, however, Mann’s controversial rape remark against Ranaut was not out in public.
"The BJP and BJP president should get Kangana admitted to a good hospital for her mental treatment,” the Aam Aadmi Party leader told reporters.
"For cheap publicity, she keeps giving such statement, sometimes against some community, some section… but it seems her mental balance has got disturbed.”
Cheema said since Ranaut is an MP, the Speaker should also get her “treated".
Mann came out with another post on X later, this time accusing the "Indian State" of using rape as “institutional weapon” against women.
“The Indian state has used it against minorities such as Sikhs in Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, and in Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and J&K,” he claimed.
“For 40 years we have had no justice for the crimes committed against Sikh women in Trilokpuri,” he said in a reference to the anti-Sikh riots in Delhi after the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
He said Ranaut doesn’t find fault with the State, but only with “Sikhs and farmers”. This showed her “deep-rooted hate for a particular community", he alleged.
Mann resigned from the IPS in 1984 following Operation Bluestar at Amritsar’s Golden Temple to flush out militants hiding in the complex.
He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tarn Taran in 1989, Sangrur in 1999 and from the same constituency again in a 2022 bypoll.