BENGALURU: Some protestors on Thursday pelted eggs at Kannada film actress and former Congress MP Ramya in Mangalore for praising Pakistan.
They pelted eggs at her car outside Mangalore airport and shouted slogans against her demanding an apology. According to reports some Bajarang Dal and VHP workers were behind the attack.
Expecting trouble the police had elaborate security arrangements at the airport and prevented the activists from approaching her.
Speaking to CNN-News18 Ramya said “I landed in Mangalore. There was a tight security. Some people pelted eggs at my car. I don’t know who they are. The people will try all sorts of things. It is not going to affect me. I am not going to backtrack. I am not at all worried".
An advocate K Vittal Gowda who has filed a sedition case against Ramya said that what she did was wrong and he had nothing against her.
Karnataka BJP leader S Prakash said that attack was in connection with her alleged derogatory remarks against Mangalore people and it had nothing to do with her statement on Pakistan. He said “Ramya is after free publicity. She had called Mangalore hell and Pakistan a good country".
The Congress leader and film actress Kushboo has attacked the BJP for the egg attack. Speaking to News18 she said “there was nothing wrong in what Ramya has said. She did not praise Pakistan government".
On Tuesday she had refused to apologise for praising the people of Pakistan saying her statements did not amount to sedition as was argued by right-wing activists.
"These days being called anti-national is a compliment. But, I would like to clarify that I am not an anti-national," Ramya told CNN-News18 after an RSS-affiliated organisation demanded that she be booked under sedition charges.
Ramya had countered Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's statement that going to Pakistan is worse than going to hell. She said that when she went to Pakistan as part of a parliamentary delegation they were treated well.
"I found them warm and good-natured. They are just like us," she said. Slamming the BJP and affiliated organisations for criticising he, she said: "I feel very sorry for them. Many people are ignorant. It is very easy to brainwash them.
The media has a very crucial role. They should educate the masses. There is no rationale behind what they are doing."
Reacting to the demand of right-wing activists that the Karnataka Film Chambers should ban her, Ramya said: "Why are they involving film industry in this? This is nothing to do with what I had said".
Her lawyer Pramod Nair said the sedition case against her was untenable and that the law itself was a "remnant of our colonial past."
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