Geeta Chandran distances herself from pro-PM campaign by 900 artistes
Bharatnatyam dancer Geeta Chandran, who has been named in a list of 907 artistes supporting "the continuance of Govt. led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi", has now distanced herself from the campaign, saying she never gave her consent for it.
The campaign by the Nation First Collective was initiated as a response after 600 theatre artistes (including names like Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak Shah, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anurag Kashyap, Vinay Pathak and Amol Palekar) joined over 100 filmmakers (including Anand Patwardhan, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan, Vetri Maaran and Pa Ranjith) and 200 writers (such as Arundhati Roy, Girish Karnad and Amitav Ghosh) to issue statements urging people to “vote hatred out of power”.
The 600 theatre artistes had appealed to people to “Vote against the BJP and its allies” under the collective Artist Unite India.The counter campaign, backed by 907 artistes, filmmakers, actors and writers, urges people “to cast their vote and exercise their right to elect the new government without any pressure and prejudice”, and includes names like Vivek Oberoi, Shankar Mahadevan, Koena Mitra, Alok Nath, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Pratibha Prahlad, Anuradha Paudwal, Gajendra Chauhan, Mukesh Khanna and Raju Srivastav.
Their statement reads: “We believe that during the last five years, India has seen a government that has delivered corruption-free good governance and development oriented administration. During this period, globally India has acquired greater respect. It is our firm conviction that the continuance of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the need of the hour. Besides, when challenges like terrorism are before all of us, we need a Majboot Sarkar and not a Mazboor Sarkar and hence we need the present Govt. to continue.”Geeta Chandran, whose name is also included in the list of 907 artistes, has now said that there was no formal agreement where she gave her approval for her name to be used. She tells us, "On April 8, the Chairman of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) invited senior artistes to a celebration of the Hindu New Year (Vikram Samvat 2076) and several of us went to greet him. There, in our conversations, there was talk about artistes asking all members of the public to vote.
We all eagerly agreed, since voting is one of the duties of all citizens."She adds, "They then mentioned endorsing the current government and its successes. Many of us present felt that the democratic principle of 'secret ballot', that is our constitutional right, would be violated if we agreed to those points, especially since most of us were not members of any political party. There was no formal signing!"
courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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In biggest haul, drugs worth Rs 51 cr seized in Meghalaya, 2 held
Shillong (PTI): The Meghalaya Police seized drugs worth over Rs 51 crore, the biggest haul of narcotics in the state so far, in East Jaintia Hills district and arrested two Mizoram-based persons in this connection, a senior officer said on Saturday.
The seizure was made during a coordinated naka-checking conducted by the police and Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) personnel in the Ratacherra area on Friday, he said.
During the operation, a vehicle with three persons, including the driver, on board was intercepted and searched in accordance with due legal procedures.
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Upon checking, 19 plastic soap cases, containing suspected heroin weighing 203.7 grams, were recovered from the possession of one of the three persons, the officer said.
The search of the vehicle led to the recovery of a blue-coloured trolley bag belonging to another occupant of the vehicle.
Suspected crystal meth (methamphetamine) tablets weighing 10.145 kilograms were found in the bag, the police officer said.
'Meth' tablets are banned in India.
Two of the three occupants of the vehicle were arrested, and a preliminary investigation suggested that they are part of an interstate and cross-border drug trafficking syndicate, the officer said.
"The total value of the seized contraband is estimated to be around Rs 51.13 crore", ANTF chief Vikash Kumar told PTI.
The arrested persons hail from Mizoram, he said.
A case has been registered at the ANTF police station, and an investigation is underway to establish the forward and backward linkages related to the seizure, the officer added.
