Actor and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut has defended her controversial remarks about Gen Z protesters, saying she was referring only to a specific group of people at a protest and not the entire generation.
Ranaut faced criticism after describing some young Hindu women as flaunting freedom without accountability and referring to certain Gen Z protesters as “Generation Gutter”. Opposition leaders and others criticised her comments, prompting the actor-turned-politician to issue clarification in counter.
On Thursday, Ranaut shared a video on her Instagram Stories in which she questioned the description of the Jantar Mantar gathering as a Gen Z protest. She argued that the crowd included people from different age groups and that only a fraction of those
present were members of Gen Z.
“Poore desh ke yuva? Agar aap sirf Gen Z ki baat karte hai, toh almost 30-35 crore ke paas inki population hone waali hai (The youth of the whole nation? If you are talking about Gen Z, then almost 30 to 35 crore people are going to be from this generation),” she said, arguing that the number of young people at the protest could not represent an entire generation.
She also said that “around 10,000 people were in Jantar Mantar and more than half of them were Shabana Azmi-type people.”
She also referred to veteran actor Shabana Azmi, who had joined the protest, while arguing that those participated in the protest gathering were from her age group.
Kangana Says Remark Was For Specific Crowd
Ranaut said her earlier comments were specifically aimed at the group gathered at the protest and challenged critics to produce a statement in which she had referred to the entire generation.
“Ye jo yaha par nasal ikkathha hui thi, usi ke baare mein jo hai maine specifically kaha tha (I had only talked about those who had gathered here [Jantar Mantar]),” she said.
“I openly challenge you to show any specific quote of mine where I have included the whole generation? Do not bring your useless agenda in front of me. I cannot be against the youth because I myself am a youth,” she said in the video.
Azmi, 75, was among the protesters who marched towards Parliament from Jantar Mantar on July 20. Photos and videos shared by the actor showed her travelling in a truck and crossing barricades with other protesters.
She also posted a picture from the march alongside actor Prakash Raj. Several celebrities from Bollywood had posted messages of direct or indirect support to the students’ movement.
‘Generation Gutter’
Ranaut had previously criticised the Gen Z-led protests over the NEET-UG paper leak. In remarks last month, she described videos from the demonstrations as “puke-inducing” and criticised the language used by some protesters.
“Never in my life have I seen so much ugliness in one place,” she had said. “I call them Generation Gutter. Some of them have nothing to offer to the system. They are not good at studies,” she had said.
Following the backlash, Ranaut said she had not made a blanket statement about the Jantar Mantar protest. She maintained that she had been referring specifically to certain people or women.
In an interaction with news agency ANI on Wednesday, she also defended her use of the word “gutter”, arguing that she was responding to protesters who had described themselves as “cockroaches”.
Ranaut maintained that interpreting her remarks as an attack on all young people was incorrect.
