After Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut was provided Y category security by the Home Ministry, ‘liberals’ rushed to draw false equivalence and criticised government for not providing security to Deepika Padukone when she was threatened ahead of the release of her film Padmaavat in 2017-18.
https://twitter.com/PreetiChoudhry/status/1302981821131558916?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwWhile lawyer Karuna Nundy made this point on India Today, many pro-Congress people on Twitter, some with dubious profiles, too made such comparisons.
https://twitter.com/rkhuria2/status/1303045858888351744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/flawsome_guy/status/1303210646515798016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw Some even claimed that Deepika never ‘asked’ for security when Karni Sena threatened her and hence she is ‘braver’. https://twitter.com/Indiansnowwoman/status/1303102836255924224?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwHowever, there are several issues with this comparison between Deepika and Kangana. First being Karni Sena, that threatened to chop off Deepika Padukone’s nose over a character she was playing on screen was not a political party ruling a state. Karni Sena chief was not the Chief Minister of the state where Deepika was being threatened. On the other hand, Kangana Ranaut is being threatened by the politicians of the party which is ruling Maharashtra. She is being abused and referred to as ‘haramkhor’ with FIRs filed against her by Shiv Sena leaders. From Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut to NCP leader and Home Minister of state Anil Deshmukh, many politicians have gone to lengths to give veiled threats to Ranaut.
She has been asked not to go back to Mumbai from Himachal Pradesh where she currently is if she ‘feels’ unsafe by the leaders of ruling party.
Hence, the very comparison of threats by Karni Sena to threats by Shiv Sena is unfair. Just because both have Sena in their name and both may appear fringe, it is not so.
Secondly, to make things clearer, Deepika Padukone was given security too when Karni Sena had threatened her.
In November 2017, when BJP was the ruling party in Maharashtra with Shiv Sena as alliance partner, the Mumbai Police had provided special security cover to Deepika Padukone.
Further, in Kangana’s case, she had alleged that Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh had ‘liked’ a tweet abusing her, thereby stating that she feels unsafe even from Mumbai Police. Mumbai mayor and Shiv Sena leader Kishori Pednekar had also backed violence against Kangana. So clearly, the current administration in Mumbai and Maharashtra also don’t appear to be dying to protect her.
Hence, comparing the threats received by Kangana and Deepika is like comparing apples to oranges.