Smriti's 'Chhapaak' on Deepika

New Delhi : Union Minister Smriti Irani has come down hard on Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone for mingling with the pro-Left students lobby at JNU.

Deepika Padukone had visited the JNU campus late on Tuesday and stood in solidarity with JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh and others who had been assaulted by masked men who were allegedly ABVP activists.

Irani speaking at a function in Chennai, questioned Deepika''s motives in standing in solidarity with the pro-Left JNUSU leaders and ignoring the ABVP activists who had also complained of being assaulted earlier.

"She knew that she is standing with people who beat other girls at their private parts with lathis who don''t see eye to eye with them ideologically," the Minister said.

"She stood next to them, that is her right. I can''t deny her that right. She made her political affiliation known in 2011 that she supports the Congress party," the Union Minister declared and went on to add, "It''s her right (to) stand next to people who say Bharat tere tukde honge...It was a shock for people who admired her and watched all her films but did not know (about her political affiliation).

"It was not a shock for me. I think the vibrance of the democracy that we are in depends upon that... we live with so many people who say so many things. We live in a democracy where communists want to come to power through democratic process.

It is an oxymoron (sic)." Deepika has recently produced and acted in ''Chhapaak'' (splash) a movie based on an acid-attack victim, and has been busy promoting the movie.

But after her visit to JNU campus on Tuesday, Deepika has been at the receiving end for siding with anti-BJP elements.

Smriti also cited the information shared by Delhi Police on Jawaharlal Nehru University violence to say that the 'Left design' in the varsity has been 'unmasked' and accused it of turning the campus into a political battleground.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said the actress's silent protest against JNU violence and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa doing his duty impartially despite harassment to his family showed that for some people, truth, freedom, and justice are not just lofty words, but ideals worth sacrificing for.