Priyanka Chopra was yelled at and branded a ‘hypocrite’ during an explosive talk in Los Angeles on Saturday — following a tweet about the India–Pakistan conflict earlier this year, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.
The 37-year-old actress and wife of Nick Jonas was quick to defend herself when an audience member at the annual Beautycon event began ranting at the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for appearing to take sides.
Exacerbating the tension was India’s decision Monday to take full control of Kashmir, a semi-autonomous Muslim-majority state claimed by both India and Pakistan.
Political protest: Priyanka Chopra, 37, was ambushed Saturday at Beautycon in Los Angeles by a heckler angry about her support for India amid ramped up India–Pakistan tensions over the disputed territory of Kashmir
Addressing the issue during a Q&A, a guest raged: ‘It was kind of hard hearing you talk about humanity because as your neighbor, a Pakistani, I know you’re a bit of a hypocrite!’
‘You are a UNICEF ambassador for peace and you’re encouraging nuclear war against Pakistan, there’s no winner in this! As a Pakistani, millions of people like me have supported you in your business…’
Back in February, Priyanka tweeted ‘Jai Hind #IndianArmedForces,’ which translates to ‘Long live India,’ the same day Indian fighter jets bombed a target in Pakistan in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Kashmir.
The jets crossed over into Pakistan over the de facto border of Kashmir and commenced to bomb what India claimed was a militant training camp, though analysis of satellite images by the Atlantic Counsel’s Digital Forensics Laboratory concluded that no significant targets were hit.
Pakistan said the bombs were dropped over an uninhabited wooded area, and the country later retaliated by shooting down an Indian plane and capturing its pilot.
Taking a stand: ‘You are a UNICEF ambassador for peace and you’re encouraging nuclear war against Pakistan, there’s no winner in this! As a Pakistani, millions of people like me have supported you in your business…’ shouted the heckler
The mic was quickly pulled away from the guest and Priyanka appeared annoyed before gathering her thoughts.
‘I hear you, whenever you’re done venting. Done? Done? Okay, cool,’ she said in exasperation.
‘I have many many friends from Pakistan, and I am from India. War is not something that I’m really fond of, but I am patriotic, so…
‘I’m sorry if I’ve hurt sentiments, to people who do love me, and have loved me. But all of us have a sort of middle ground we all have to walk, just like you probably do as well.’
Priyanka previously expressed support for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who leads a right-wing Hindu nationalist government, when she invited him to her wedding to Nick Jonas.
Keeping the peace: ‘I hear you, whenever you’re done venting. Done? Done? Okay, cool,’ she said in exasperation. ‘I have many many friends from Pakistan, and I am from India. War is not something that I’m really fond of, but I am patriotic,’ she said
The Quantico star then shot the guest down, telling her, ‘The way you came at me right now, girl, don’t yell, we’re all here for love. Don’t yell. We all walk that middle ground, but thank you for your enthusiasm and question, and your voice.’
Though she did her best to pacify the crowd, there wasn’t much in the way of a substantive rebuttal to the heckler.
Earlier this year, thousands of people signed a petition to remove Priyanka from her UN role amid tension between the two countries.
UNICEF never commented on her controversial tweet.
Unapologetic: ‘I live my life on my terms, I don’t live it for other people, so it is what it is, love it or leave it,’ she added
Following India’s crackdown, tens of thousands of peaceful protesters marched through the streets of Srinagar, a city in Kashmir,
Indian forces broke up the protest by firing into the crowd, injuring at least seven people, according to The New York Times.
Prime Minister Modi has made his plans known to carve up the entire territory of Kashmir into two separate Indian states.
Many Kashmiris worry that current actions will encourage Indian Hindus to buy up land within the region in order to dilute its Muslim majority.
Caught in the middle: In February, Priyanka tweeted her support for India’s military after an unsuccessful air strike in Pakistan, part of increased tensions of Kashmir, which ramped up this week when India revoke the territory’s semi-autonomous governance
After the interruption, Priyanka opened up about her recent extravagant wedding to Jonas Brothers singer Nick Jonas, 26, and admitted they initially wanted to keep it low-key.
‘We wanted to keep it private, but because we had the wedding in India, it was not easy to do, it was rough,’ she laughed. ‘But then the love and affection that we got when people were reading that this was going to happen, we were so happy.
‘Our families were so integrated, it didn’t matter what our religions were or where our families came from, everything just stood for love.
‘Eventually we decided it was important to share that because we felt so full in our hearts.’