At a recent event, Smriti Irani, right, sharply criticised Deepika Padukone for visiting the JNU campus this week. (Photos: PTI and Getty Images)

Union Minister Smriti Irani says Deepika Padukone must have known she was choosing to stand with "people who wanted the destruction of India" when she visited Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) this week.

"I think that anybody who has read the news knew where they were going to stand," Irani said at a recent event.

"[They] knew that they're going to stand with people who wanted the destruction of India." she said. She appeared to be referring to events that took place at JNU in February 2016.

Watch the clip here.

. @smritiirani takes down Deepika Padukone for supporting Bharat Tere Tukde Gang pic.twitter.com/XzqTmSjeaN Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga (@TajinderBagga) January 10, 2020

Various right-wing groups and some BJP leaders called for a boycott of Deepika Padukone's new film in response to her public show of solidarity with students at JNU, where many were injured in a horrific rampage carried out by masked goons on January 5.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar later told India Today TV the Modi government and the BJP did not support the boycott campaign.

Deepika Padukone spoke about the violence at JNU in a recent interview with Aaj Tak TV.

"I am very angry at what is happening but it is worse that no action is being taken," she said.

The right-wing ABVP, the RSS's student wing, is being widely blamed for the violence at JNU -- but it is pointing fingers at Left groups instead.