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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Actor Ranveer Singh receives threat
Mumbai (PTI): Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh received a threat through WhatsApp from unidentified persons, police said on Tuesday.
Security around his residence was increased after Singh received a threat through a voice note and approached police, an official said.
The threat to the `Dhurandhar' star came days after an incident of firing outside the residence of filmmaker Rohit Shetty in the city.
Police suspect that members of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang could be behind the threat to Ranveer with the purpose of extortion, the official said. The crime branch of Mumbai Police has launched a probe, he added.
Besides Mumbai Police personnel, private guards too have been deployed at the housing society in Central Mumbai where the actor lives.
On Tuesday, the society's managing committee approached police and expressed concern over the deployment of guards. "Since these armed guards are frequently moving with weapons in common areas such as the lobby, gymnasium and children's play area, the society managing committee has expressed serious concern regarding the safety and comfort of other residents," they said in a letter.
Recently, an unidentified shooter had fired five rounds at filmmaker Rohit Shetty's residence in Juhu.
Lawrence Bishnoi gang member Shubham Lonkar, who has been absconding, purportedly took responsibility for the firing. Five men have been arrested in the case.
