Diljit Dosanjh responded sharply to Kangana Ranaut after she made a jibe at him for calling her out on Twitter over a false tweet that claimed she had seen Shaheen Bagh activist Bilkis Bano, aka Bilkis Dadi, at a farmers' protest.
Calling him Karan Johar's lackey, Kangana tweeted in Hindi, "The same dadi who was protesting for her citizenship at Shaheen Bagh, Bilkis Bano, was also protesting with the farmers. I have no idea who Mahinder Kaur (sic) is, so stop creating unnecessary drama. Stop this right now."
Diljit responded asking Kangana whether by her tweet she was implying that one becomes a sycophant to whomever they work with. "In that case, wouldn't you have a long list of masters to answer to?" he tweeted.
"These people are not from Bollywood. They belong to Punjab. You can say whatever you like but we won't be perturbed. You are well-versed in lying and manipulating people's emotions," he added.
The conversation carried on with Kangana accusing Diljit of defending those who responsible for the bloodshed during the riots in Delhi in February. She went on to criticise Bilkis Bano further and insisted that the activist had been bribed to protest, first against the Citizenship Amendment Act and now the newly passed farm bills.
An incensed Diljit responded, "Do you have any common sense? How dare you speak about our mothers like that? Go scare someone else in the name of Bollywood. We were born to crush egos of people like you. You can continue to say whatever you want about Bollywood. It’s become a habit for you now to bad-mouth everyone possible."
Kangana had earlier posted a picture on Twitter claiming that it was Bano who was being bribed with Rs 100 a day to participate in the ongoing farmers' protest. However, the woman in the photograph was actually 73-year-old Mohinder Kaur, a resident of Bathinda’s Bahadurgarh Jandian village. The tweet has since been deleted.
In response to this tweet, Diljit posted a clip of a BBC interview with Mohinder and tweeted in Punjabi: "Here's your proof @KanganaTeam. Nobody should be so blind as to go around saying anything they like."
In the clip, the elderly farmer challenged Kangana to come to her farm and see how hard she and the other women worked to tend to their land.
In another tweet Diljit wrote, "There's a peaceful protest going, everyone's supporting the farmers... but people like Kangana will bark and divert the attention to a topic that's not even relevant and play politics... everyone should make a note of this, this woman just knows how to divert the conversation from an important issue ... we Punjabis know you well.
Advocate Hakam Singh has filed a legal notice against Kangana for her false claims. The lawyer told ANI on 2 December, “I sent a legal notice for a tweet misidentifying Ms Mohinder Kaur as Bilkis Bano with an insinuation that she (Ms Kaur) was available as a hired protester for Rs 100. The notice gives Ranaut seven days to issue an apology failing which a defamation case will be pursued.”
He further added that Ranaut’s remarks not only “degraded the image of each lady and each person” but also were hugely disrespectful to the protesting farmers.
Diljit Dosanjh, Ammy Virk, Guru Randhawa and Angad Bedi are among the Punjabi celebrities who have showed solidarity with the farmers protesting against the Narendra Modi government's recently passed farm laws.
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