I was hit, abused by CISF constable, worried about terrorism in Punjab: Kangana

New Delhi: Actor and newly elected BJP MP Kangana Ranaut said on Thursday said she was hit on the face and abused by a CISF woman constable during security check at the Chandigarh airport while on her way to Delhi.

In a video statement titled "Shocking rise in terror and violence in Punjab" posted on X, she said she was safe and fine but was concerned about terrorism increasing in Punjab.

https://x.com/kanganateam/status/1798697545201569904?s=46

Ranaut, who issued the statement after landing in Delhi, said the constable came towards her from the side. "She hit me on the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmers' protests."

Recapping in detail what had happened, Ranaut said she had been getting a lot of calls from the media and her well-wishers. The constable, she said, came towards her from the side. "She hit me in the face and started abusing me. I asked her why she did it and she said she supports the farmer protests." "I am safe but my concern is that terrorism is increasing in Punjab... How do we handle that?"

Another video doing the rounds of social media showed the agitated constable talking to people presumably after the incident.

"Kangana made a statement that farmers were protesting in Delhi because they were paid Rs 100 or Rs 200. At the time, my mother was one of the protesters," she said in the purported video. Her name has not been officially disclosed.

Terming the incident a serious matter, National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma called for serious action and said the panel had taken up the matter with the CISF. Those responsible for security at airport are themselves breaching security, she said in a post on X.

Making her political -- and electoral debut -- Ranaut defeated her nearest Congress rival by over 74,000 votes from Mandi in her home state Himachal Pradesh.

The four-time National Award winner has been a high profile, prominent voice supporting the ruling party on issues like the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in 2019-20 and farmer protests in 2020-21. During the agitation against the three farm laws, Ranaut allegedly misidentified a woman farmer from Punjab and called her Bilkis Bano, an octogenarian who had made international headlines during the anti-CAA protests earlier in the Delhi neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh.

She had then shared a tweet alleging that the 'Shaheen Bagh dadi' also joined the farmers' agitation over the new agriculture laws at various border points of the national capital. She retweeted the post with pictures of two elderly women and wrote that the "same Dadi" who featured in Time Magazine was "available in 100 rupees".

The actor later deleted the tweet after Twitter users pointed out that both the women were different.