Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday came out in support of actor Deepika Padukone, who is at the receiving end of many people including the ruling party BJP at centre and some other quarters over her visit to the JNU campus in Delhi to express solidarity with students who were recently attacked by armed assailants.

The executive editor of Shiv Sena’s  mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ Raut said that the country cannot be run in a “Talibani” style.

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“The demand for boycott of the actress and her film is wrong. The country cannot be run in a ‘Talibani’ style,” news agency PTI quoted Raut as saying.

Earlier, on January 11 former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan too came out in support of Padukone, He said the actress’s silent protest against JNU violence showed that for some people, truth, freedom, and justice are not just lofty words, but ideals worth sacrificing for.

After Padukone’s visit to the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Tuesday, many appreciated her “silent solidarity”, but some others criticised her for “supporting Leftists”, saying it was a promotional stunt for her latest film “Chhapaak”.

Some also demanded a boycott of her film, based on the life of an acid attack survivor, played by Padukone.

A section of BJP leaders also criticised the 34-year- old actor over her JNU visit.

“Chhapaak”, directed by Meghna Gulzar, hit the theatres on Friday.

The Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh on Thursday declared the film tax-free in the two states.

Declaring a movie tax-free means the state has waived the entertainment levy imposed on it, thereby bringing down the ticket rates and encouraging more people to watch it.

Unprecedented violence was unleashed on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus by a mob of masked men and women on January 5th night, who went on a rampage attacking students and teachers with wooden and metal rods, injuring at least 34 people.

The Delhi Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the violence on Friday identified nine suspects in the case. These nine suspects also involve JNUSU president Aishe Ghosh who suffered serious head injury during the violence.

Meanwhile, the JNUSU on Saturday criticised the police for allegedly shielding ABVP activists in the January 5 violence. In a media briefing, the JNUSU leaders narrated the sequence of events starting from January 4 in the campus.