Kangana dancing to the tune of external forces, domestic lackeys Adani, Ambani: AIKS

Counterview Desk

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has demanded apology from actor-turned-BJP MP Kangana Ranaut's statement comparing the farmers' agitation in 2020-21 as having been supported by external forces with the recent upheaval in Bangladesh which forced Sheikh Hasina to flee the country.

Asking the Supreme Court to take suo moto cognizance and action "for deliberately creating discord against farmers", AIKS reminded her, "One of the greatest icons of militant anti-imperialism and the freedom struggle, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, was the most popular image of resistance during the Kisan struggle."

Text:

The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) strongly condemns the irresponsible and malicious statements made by Kangana Ranaut, BJP MP from Mandi against farmers and the historic farmers’ movement that ferociously fought the corporate takeover of Indian agriculture. In a recent interview with a Hindi daily, the actress turned BJP MP described the farmers’ movement as an anti-national force engaged in destabilising India with the help of “external forces”. She went further and depicted the farmers’ movement as planning a ‘colour revolution’ similar to what happened in Bangladesh.

As a matter of fact, Kangana Ranaut’s despise towards the legendary and patriotic farmers’ movement is well documented. When the farmers were bravely fighting the harsh weather, the Covid pandemic, and the state violence unleashed by the RSS-BJP regime, Ranaut was dancing to the tune set by “external forces”— the hegemonic global finance — and their domestic lackeys like Adani and Ambani.

Her spiteful remarks on the peasantry, especially the denigrating remarks about peasant women exposed the fact that Ranaut will go to any extent to please her “external” and “internal” bosses who want to devour agriculture.

Ranaut, who was the most obnoxious cheerleader of the pro-corporate Farm Laws also made totally false statements trying to connect "rapes and murders" with farmers' movement. It is a plain truth that the Kisan struggle had 736 martyrs and Ranaut's colleagues in the RSS-BJP actually murdered protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri.

AIKS reminds Ranaut and her colleagues in the RSS-BJP that the farmers’ movement against the draconian Farm Laws drew its inspiration from the anti-imperialist freedom struggle against the British. One of the greatest icons of militant anti-imperialism and the freedom struggle, Shaheed Bhagat Singh, was the most popular image of resistance during the Kisan struggle.

The reactionary communal forces like the RSS, the Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League which betrayed the freedom struggle and acted as the stooges of British imperialism do not have any moral authority to question the patriotism of the peasantry and the working people. AIKS reiterates that, if implemented, the Farm Laws would have compromised the sovereignty and the food security of the country.

AIKS demands that Ranaut immediately withdraw her statements and apologise to the farmers for her malicious and provocative remarks.The prime minister Narendra Modi should also apologise to the farmers.The Supreme Court should take suo moto cognizance of Ranaut's statements for deliberately misleading and creating discord against farmers and take strong deterrent action against her.

-- Ashok Dhawale, President; Vijoo Krishnan, General Secretary

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog