On Tuesday, actor Isha Koppikar posted a video on her Instagram, calling herself a proud ‘andhbhakt’ (blind devotee). She claimed that while her devotion was not towards any political party, she was proud of the way the country was changing. Now actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has backed her statement.
What Kangana said
Kangana posted the video on her Instagram Stories and wrote, “Wow well explained for me as- in high school protested against a teacher who used to hit children in head with stick during assembly, protested against 26/11 violence. Protested against Nirbhaya brutality. Never blamed parents for any limitation that may have come my way. Instead uplifted whole family to the same standard of life that I earned for myself.”
She added, “Identifies being a bhakt of almost anyone who I meet, I love my country I love my people. I simply love my life.”
Isha on being andhbhakt
In the video Isha posted, she introduced herself and said, “Yes, I am an andhbhakt. If it is bhakti (devotion) to love your country and want to see it progress, then yes, I am proud to be a bhakt… andhbhakt. But my blind devotion is not towards any political party; it’s towards my country. Nation first. I can question the government and disagree with its policies. And still love my country wholeheartedly.” Andhbhakt is usually a term for a blind follower of a political party or leader.
She then stated that she isn’t ashamed to be proud of India, “This country is my home, where I have earned and continue to earn a livelihood and where I continue to get opportunities. So, I am not ashamed to be proud of my country. Wherever you may live, learn to love that place, respect that place, and contribute to it. Be proud of the home you choose. Because patriotism is not just saying, I love my country. It is doing something that improves your country.”
What did Kangana say about the protests?
Meanwhile, Kangana had earlier slammed the Gen Z protests at Jantar Mantar. “Never in my life have I seen so much ugliness in one place. These reels from Gen Z protests are puke-inducing. The way they speak and the kind of language they are using… never in my life have I seen everything in each and every frame so jarring and so crass all at once….I call them Generation Gutter. Some of them have nothing to offer to the system. They are not good at studies…,” she had said last month.
After backlash for her remarks, Kangana had said she had not made a blanket statement about the protest at Jantar Mantar over the NEET-UG paper leak and she “specifically referred to some people or some women”. “Those who call themselves cockroaches, and we say that cockroaches emerge from gutters, what is wrong with that? My point is simply this: if people label themselves as cockroaches, and we say the gutter is their home, why should they be offended? I certainly don’t consider myself a cockroach. If someone were to say I live in a gutter, I would deny it. But if someone claims to be a cockroach, then naturally, they would live in a gutter. Where else? But to claim that I was referring to all youth is simply not the case,” she told news agency ANI on Wednesday.