Priyanka Chopra‘s feet were held to the flames over the weekend as she was asked a hardball political question.
At BeautyCon of all places.
The Quantico star, who was the Ambassador for BeautyCon Los Angeles this year, took the stage at the event to do an audience Q&A.
Related: Priyanka And Nick Jonas Get ‘A Lot Of S**t’ Over Age Gap
What she got was a very tough question about her tweet back in February cheering on India during an escalation of the conflict with Pakistan.
Many members of the audience actually gasped when a woman hit her with:
“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. Because you tweeted on February 26, ‘Jai Hind #IndianArmedForces.'”
On February 26, India announced it had launched airstrikes in Pakistani territory, apparently in response to a bombing in Indian-controlled Kashmir a couple weeks earlier.
Jai Hind is a phrase which translates roughly to “Victory to India.” So it did seem very much like Priyanka was cheering airstrikes, something she faced controversy for at the time.
The questioner/protester(?) continued:
“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 of Hollywood, and you want nuclear war!”
(She had to shout the last bit as her microphone got taken away.)
It was at this point Priyanka cut the questioner short, saying:
“I hear you, whenever you’re done venting. Got it? Done? OK, cool.”
On the one hand, it seems kind of rude, but on the other everyone hates those convention Q&A “let me tell you my life story to properly put my question into context” questions, so that’s par for the course. And that’s for questions which don’t even put you on the spot about your geopolitical gaffes!
Mrs. Nick Jonas could have just said she this wasn’t in the right place to talk about that and moved on. But she actually did try to give the woman an answer, saying:
“So, um, 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 I think all of us have a sort of… middle ground that we all have to walk, just like you probably do as well. The way you came at me right now, girl, don’t yell, we’re all here for love. Don’t yell. Don’t embarrass yourself. But we all walk that middle ground, but thank you for your enthusiasm and your question and your voice.”
Damn. “Thank you for your enthusiasm” is maybe the most dismissive sentence we’ve ever heard. Like, are we sure it isn’t a line from Heathers?
As for her answer, we think it sounds pretty reasonable, after all being patriotic sometimes feels in conflict with being anti-war as governments continue to fail (seemingly purposely at times) at creating peaceful solutions.
But you can love your country and at the same time be against the things your government is doing.
See: United States, 2016-present.
Watch Priyanka give her answer for yourself (below):
A woman named Ayesha Malik identified herself as the questioner on Twitter the next day and got in the final word, writing:
“Hi, I’m the girl that ‘yelled’ at Priyanka Chopra.
It was hard listening to her say, “we should be neighbors and love each other” — swing that advice over to your PM.
Both India and Pakistan were in danger. And instead she tweeted out in favor for nuclear war.
It took me back to when I couldn’t reach my family because of the blackouts and how scared/helpless I was.
She gaslit me and turned the narrative around on me being the ‘bad guy’ — as a UN ambassador this was so irresponsible.”
As previously mentioned, the woman was yelling toward the end because her microphone had been taken away.
However, she did pose her “question” in a confrontational way from the start.
What do YOU think, Perezcious readers? Was Priyanka’s response any good? Was the questioner wrong to bring her beef to BeautyCon in the first place??
Let us know in the comments (below)!
[Image via FayesVision/WENN.]