Kangana fails to appear before peace panel probing her remarks on Sikhs

New Delhi: Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut on Monday sought more time to appear before the Delhi Assembly's panel on peace and harmony over her controversial and "derogatory remarks" on social media against the Sikh community.

Raghav Chadha, who heads the committee, said in a statement that Ranaut's lawyer informed them in a letter that the actress cannot appear before the panel due to 'personal and professional commitments.'

"The committee will inform its decision to her in a letter," said Raghav Chadha.

"The committee has received numerous complaints eliciting inter alia, outrageously offensive and derogatory Instagram stories/posts allegedly published by yourself on 20.11.2021 over your official Instagram account..." the committee said in a notice signed by its deputy secretary to Ms Ranaut.

The summons document said Ms Ranaut's "blanketly labelling (Sikhs) as Khalistani terrorists... has the potential to engender disharmony as well as cause wounding humiliation to the entire Sikh community."

Two week before, the Bollywood actor took to Instagram to share a picture of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying that she "crushed Khalistanis like mosquitoes" even at the "cost of her life". In the post, Ranaut praised the former PM for what she called "decisive action".

The actor also faces a first information report, or FIR, in Mumbai filed by Sikhs for using derogatory language against them on social media.