Users Divided as Bollywood's Kangana Ranaut Urges Anti-Citizenship Law Protesters to Avoid Violence

Kangana Ranaut has drawn both backlash and praise after slamming anti-citizenship law protesters for vandalising public properties, including setting buses on fire, across India.

"In our population, only three to four per cent of people pay taxes. The rest of them are actually dependent on them. So, who gives you the right to burn buses, trains, create ruckus in the country. One bus costs a lot. It's not a small amount. And the condition of this country is such that there are so many, who are dying of malnutrition," added Ranaut.

In reference to the ongoing protests against the amended law that have turned violent and left many dead or injured, she continued by saying that people should not "instigate violence".

"It's not correct for the people to instigate violence in the name of democracy. We are still stuck in the pre-Independence era. During that time, going on strikes against the people, who had captured us, not paying taxes, all of this was really cool. But today, because of democracy, your leaders have come from within you, not from Italy or Japan," said the actress during the promotion of her forthcoming film “Panga”

Some netizens asked the actress to stop "speaking scripted dialogue"...

​...while another user suggested that it was not smart to ask an actress about tax collection in which she was “woefully ill-informed”.

A fellow Twitterian said that now people who pay indirect taxes but not direct taxes are eligible for ransacking public property, while yet another urged her to “remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also slammed the Bollywood star over her remark on taxes, tweeting: "Even daily labourers pay indirect taxes when they buy something cheap like salt. They even pay taxes when they go to watch movies and are responsible for the income of actors".

There were several others, who endorsed the actor’s opinion “completely in agreement with what Kangana says”:

Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act have raged across cities and turned violent in many parts, of the country, resulting in vandalism, destruction, arson, as well as the death of at least 20 people and injuries to hundreds of people over the last few days.

The new Citizenship Amendment Act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and arrived before 31 December 2014. The legislation came under fire for what the protesters described as a violation of the Indian constitution by granting citizenship on the basis of religion and excluding Muslims.