The 34-year-old actor has made comments offsetting those of defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who compared going to Pakistan akin to going to hell.
Kannada actor Ramya on Tuesday became the latest subject of right wing ire when her comments on Pakistan invited a case of sedition by lawyer Vittal Gowda, also president of the Kodagu Pragati Ranga.
The 34-year-old actor has made comments offsetting those of defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who compared going to Pakistan akin to going to hell. "Pakistan is not hell; people there are just like us. They treated us very well," she had told reporters, after coming back from the country as part of the SAARC young parliamentarians delegation earlier this month.
Angered over the remarks, Gowda filed a private case in a court in Somwarpet in Kodagu under section 200 of the Cr PC. Gowda also appealed the court to book Ramya under section 124A (sedition) and section 334 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC. A postcard campaign that denounced her remarks was carried out by Yuva-Bharat, a right wing youth organisation of Mysore.
Ramya, whose real name is Divya Spandan, however, refused to apologise for the comments. "People are so passionate about a certain brand of nationalism, without really knowing why. Misconstrued ideals that have been perpetuated by a certain section of the society dictate what is nationalism for us, and people are outraged over that," she said.
This is not the first time that a right wing organisation has taken offence in Congress-ruled Karnataka. Early this month, an FIR under section 124A was filed against Amnesty International by the Karnataka police for holding a function against the violation of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.
Coming out to support Ramya was Pakistan India Peoples' Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD) which sent out a statement saying that the charges were "baseless" and condemned "such jingoistic acts". "It is shocking to see that a message promoting peace between Pakistan and India can result in sedition cases against a person," the statement read.
The actor said that if a harmless comment as such can invite such outrage, she has not ruled out the possibility of people harming her physically. "To be honest, I really don't care. It is my fundamental right to speak what I want to, it is what our forefathers fought for. If we can't uphold that, then what is the point," she told dna.
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