Kangana – The Slap Gate!

Now that Smriti Irani has lost her Parliamentary seat, BJP need not feel disheartened for it has found her able replacement in Kangana Ranaut. And sure enough, it started with a bang or rather, the sound of a slap!

Barely a day or two into her MP-ship, she got into the Chandigarh Airport episode. However, unfortunately though not surprisingly, the entire narrative developing out of that episode is being presented entirely from Kangana’s perspective. We are not even aware of the entire story or how the incidents unfolded to result in what we are told it did.

This is what we are told.

In the after-incident video that Kangana posted or was posted on her behalf, she says, “”Hello, friends! I am getting several phone calls from the media and my well-wishers. Firstly, I am safe and I am perfectly fine. The accident that happened today at Chandigarh airport was during a security check. As soon as I moved forward, the CISF security guard at the other cabin waited for me to pass by her and then she hit me on my face. She also abused me. When I asked her why she hit me then she said that she is a farmer protest supporter.” And then she added, “I am safe but my concern is, how are we going to handle the rise of terrorist and extremism in Punjab.”

With this statement, Kangana reportedly gives the impression that prior to the actual slap, nothing untoward happened at the airport check-up – at least there was nothing that she did which should have provoked Kulwinder to do what she did. From Kangana’s statement, it seems that if anything, Kulwinder’s was a pre-meditated action, that she had already made up her mind to slap her.

Was it as simple and straight forward as this?

Along with Kangana’s statement, we are also seeing a brief video clip, that was being shown over and over again. That video clip too does not help. We are never able to learn the entire story or how the incident evolved. And at no point does it reveal what transpired nor actually shows the instance of the slap. We know that the slap did took place. But it is bit hard to swallow that the moment Kulwinder saw Kangana, she went up to her and gave her one! We are only getting Kangana’s version of how as she passed Kulwinder when the latter came and hit her.

Kulwinder Kaur is not a green-horn security personnel. We do not know how many years is she into her service, but she is not a fresher for certain. And so, she must be aware of the rules. It is very much possible to accept that she already had an opinion about Kangana and even harboured a resentment against her – enough to remember the words Kangana had used about the women participating in the farmers’ protest. And Kulwinder was also aware that not once had Kangana apologised for her shameless statement. Even now, when something must have happened – and I cannot imagine a something not happening – to provoke Kulwinder. Kangana did not retract her farmers’ statement, far less apologise for it. The farmers’ protest statement was neatly side-stepped from the narrative.

Was there some discussion, some argument between the two? Was there some security request  or routine regimen that Kangana did not wish to follow? Arrogant as Kangana is even otherwise and now possibly more so with her Loksabha victory, she was not inclined to follow the routine check-up. Did Kulwinder insist on something to which Kangana responded by saying something unpleasant to her, something irritating, something enough to infuriate Kulwinder?

Or, did Kulwinder actually confront Kangana with the latter’s farmers statement? Kangana may have tried to avoid that. Or she may responded in the way that she does. Far less apologise for that, Kangana actually stood by her earlier stand or even gone to the extent of giving Kulwinder a mouthful.

Disciplined soldier as Kulwinder must be, we are not getting her side of the story. And so we can only conjecture. But there must be a her side of the story. She couldn’t have just given into one maniac moment and put her career and her future are at stake. There must be a proper, logical sequence to or explanation for what happened at the Chandigarh airport. We may not readily get to hear about it. Kangana has swiftly and cannily given a twist to it by equating the entire issue with “terrorism” in Punjab.

Winning an election and then getting into this, where a security personnel slaps her out of the blue must have been quite embarrassing for the newly become MP. Again, the video that did the rounds does not really reveal anything – except for her possible few supporters or those accompanying her, counselling her and even seeking to escort her. There is no uproar, no creating a scene. No one even checking the cheek she may have got slapped on.

So, what do you make of it?

The only thing we can make of it is that it really did not happen the way Kangana wants us to believe.

There is definitely more to it than meets the eye.

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Biju Negi, Hind Swaraj Manch