How Bollywood reacted to assault of Kangana Ranaut by woman constable

Several Bollywood celebrities, including veteran actor Anupam Kher, expressed solidarity with actor-politician and newly-elected BJP MP Kangana Ranaut who was slapped by a woman constable of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Chandigarh airport. The incident happened when Kangana Ranaut, who was elected to Lok Sabha from Mandi Constituency in Himachal Pradesh, was on her way to Delhi.

Condemning the incident, Kher, who was speaking on the sidelines of an event, said the way the woman constable slapped Kangana Ranaut, abusing her position of power, is wrong. Demanding an investigation into the incident, the actor said a person can have grievances, and such issues can be dealt with in a more democratic way. "But to do something like this is very unfortunate. Not only because now Kangana Ranaut in an MP or actor, she is a woman. I think any kind of violence towards anybody, forget about women, isn't right."

Shekhar Suman condemned the incident, saying, "No one has the right to do this. This is illegal what she has done. She should get punished for this. I understand that she might have some anger or protest in her mind but the way it was expressed was very wrong. It could also have been said in a decent manner...You can't raise your hand on anyone like this."

"I have no love lost for #Kangana Ranaut. But I can't find myself joining this chorus of celebrating "the slap". If security personnel start taking law into their hands none of us can be safe," Shabana Azmi tweeted.

Director Vivek Agnihotri tweeted: “This incident with @KanganaTeam must be condemned by every sane person. Why do I say 'sane'? Because only sane people understand how dangerous it is for a democracy. Those who are laughing at Kangana must know that many people don't like your tweets either. And you fly too.”

“Don't agree with Kangana Ranaut politically but I still feel it ain't right to physically assault someone when you disagree with them. Not cool. Violence is never the answer,” Bollywood celebrity Uorfi Javed wrote in a social media post.