'Why would Shiv Sena target Kangana Ranaut?'

'There was no fight between the Shiv Sena and her.'
'But if she is still targeting the Shiv Sena, then only she can talk about the reason behind it.'

IMAGE: Shiv Sena workers and supporters stage a protest against actor Kangana Ranaut as she arrives at Mumbai airport, September 9, 2020. Photograph: PTI Photo

Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, who has been sparring with the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, and especially the Shiv Sena, may not believe what a Shiv Sena minister in the government has to say about the police investigation launched against her in an old narcotics consumption case or the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation demolishing an allegedly illegal structure at her office.

But senior Shiv Sena leader and Minister of Transport and Parliamentary Affairs in the state government, Anil Parab, states that the party is not targeting Ranaut for her twitter-sparring against the Sena.

"I don't know about this old case is (about actor Adhyayan Suman, Kangana's then boyfriend, alleging in a 2016 interview that Kangana consumed drugs and forced him to do so too; the probe was ordered based on this interview) but since the Maharashtra home minister (Anil Deshmukh) has asked for an investigation, the Mumbai police will definitely look into it," Parab tells Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com.

"We are not targeting anybody," says Parab, "and if the BMC has demolished a section of her office, then it must have been done as per BMC's rules and regulations."

"Why would the Shiv Sena target her?" he asks defending the Sena-governed civic body's action against the actor who in one tweet referred to it as the Babur Municipal Corporation.

Ranaut, who was granted Y-Plus security by the Union home ministry this week, tweeted that she respects the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. She also posted an old tweet of Thackeray where he raised fears about the Shiv Sena becoming like the Congress.

The Sena seems in no mood to relent against Ranaut even as Parab maintains the party line to not comment on her statements on social media.

"What can we do if she is now saying that she respects and admires Balasaheb Thackeray? She is free to admire or hate the Shiv Sena. Let her decide what she wants to do. We have no comments to give on what she tweets or says," says Parab.

"She is free to say or tweet whatever she wants," Parab adds when asked about Ranaut expressing her admiration for the late Sena chief.

The transport minister also refuses to say anything about Ranaut targeting the Sena. "How can I comment on why she is targeting the Shiv Sena or on whose behalf she is doing it? She has to answer that?" he says.

"There was no fight between the Shiv Sena and her. But if she is still targeting the Shiv Sena, then only she can talk about the reason behind it," he says.

Parab defended Shiv Sena workers's campaign against Ranaut for her one-sided spat with Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray.

"If she attacks the Shiv Sena, our cadres are bound to get aggressive. How do you expect them to stay quiet when people attack our party?" asks Parab.

A police station in Mumbai has registered a non-cognisable offence, without registering an FIR, against Ranaut for using foul language against the chief minister.

"Let her decide what she wants to do," Parab says when asked if the Shiv Sena wants Ranaut to apologise to the people of Mumbai for comparing the Shiv Sena to the Taliban and the city to Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

The Sena leader was on the defensive while asked why the BMC demolished Ranaut's office in 2020 when the complaint against the alleged illegal construction was filed by in 2019.

"The BMC acts as per the law and the Shiv Sena should not be held responsible for the BMC's actions. Are you suggesting that the BMC should not act on a complaint if it is a year or two years old?"

"The BMC will act against everybody who is involved in illegal construction."