By Arré Bench Dec. 03, 2020
Against the backdrop of the farmer’s protests, an entertaining sideshow emerged when Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut found themselves on the opposite sides of a good old-fashioned Twitter beef.
Indian Twitter was full of images of the farmers’ protest currently taking place in Delhi this morning, as it has been for the past few days. But by afternoon, an entertaining sideshow emerged when Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh and Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut found themselves on the opposite sides of a good old-fashioned Twitter beef. The feud began when Dosanjh attempted to correct Ranaut’s false allegation that the old woman photographed at the protests was the same one spotted at the Shaheen Bagh protests last year. Ranaut responded in her typical acidic fashion, calling Dosanjh “Karan Johar ka paltu” (Karan Johar’s pet), before Dosanjh returned fire. The two went back and forth, with Ranaut using all her trademarks like personal insults and unproven allegations, but Dosanjh refused to back down either. Addressing Ranaut in Punjabi, Dosanjh became the toast of Indian Twitter for how he called out Ranaut’s offensive conduct at every turn.
“Jod tod Bollywood ch chalda hona Tera.. Punjabi’an Naal Ni Chalna”
Translation: “your political tricks of disunifying might be effective in Bollywood ..but it won’t work on us Punjabis” https://t.co/X5w37MRDff
— Gurmehar Kaur (@mehartweets) December 3, 2020
Social media followed the Ranaut versus Dosanjh fight with rapt attention. Many commenters who were tired of Ranaut’s habit of regularly badmouthing others on Twitter cheered Dosanjh’s no-holds-barred approach to tackling her comments.
#DiljitDosanjh Vs #KanganaRanaut
Diljit-5
Kangana-0We are all behaving like those school kids jinke saamne ladai hoti hai aur wo excitement mein dekhte rehte hain🤭😄
— Sayema (@_sayema) December 3, 2020
Welcome to another day of Kangana Vs Common Sense 😂😂😂
— Kunal Kamra (@kunalkamra88) December 3, 2020
Satirist Akash Banerjee noticed that Ranaut’s responses to Dosanjh were the standard template of all right wingers currently trying to delegitimise the farmers’ protest. He called out Ranaut’s habit of whataboutery and goalpost-shifting.
The #Kangana meltdown in front of #Diljit is interesting cuz she uses the same #Farmer Misguided defense & tries to divert the fight to CAA/Riots/Politics.
Her rates may be higher – but her arguments are from the same stock ammunition that every 2 rupee troll uses.#BadScript— Akash Banerjee (@TheDeshBhakt) December 3, 2020
While most people on Twitter were thrilled to watch Ranaut and Dosanjh go back and forth, journalist Sanket Upadhyay was one of those who felt that the discourse had crossed the bounds of decency.
The online fight between @diljitdosanjh & @KanganaTeam has crossed all levels of decency. ALL.
— Sanket Upadhyay (@sanket) December 3, 2020
Liberal Twitter was of course in Team Dosanjh.
Because we need more than one @diljitdosanjh. #DiljitDosanjh appreciation tweet. pic.twitter.com/tOEXaU2p2N
— Suresh Mathew (@Suresh_Mathew_) December 3, 2020
#DiljitDosanjh rocks 🤘
— Poonam Pandey (@pandeypoonam20) December 3, 2020
You can never shut down Punjabi with hateful hindi. This is the reality of a twitter feud in particular and politics in general.
— Asmita Bakshi (@asmitabee) December 3, 2020
I thought I would never say this but @diljitdosanjh makes me want to learn Punjabi!
— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) December 3, 2020
As the day wore on, praise for Dosanjh continued to pour in. With one fiery tweet exchange, December 3 suddenly became Diljit Dosanjh Appreciation Day on Indian Twitter.
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