New Delhi,June 10: Congress on Monday once again targeted Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan for becoming the brand ambassador of Gujarat by asking him to clear his position on the 2002 communal carnage in the state.
“As a brand ambassador does he endorse or condemn the mass murder in Gujarat? It is high time that Amitabh Bachchan should come out and say what is his position on Gujarat riots is,” asked Congress MP and spokesperson Manish Tewari.
Some Congress leaders protested his presence at the function and even reportedly wrote to Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Even Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan expressed his unhappiness about Amitabh’s presence at the Sea Link function.
“I was unaware he (Amitabh Bachchan) was going to be invited. As he represents a brand ambassador for some other state, there has been some discontent about it,” said Chavan on March 24 after the inauguration of the second carriageway of the Sea Link.
Chavan also avoided sharing the dais with Amitabh on March 27 when he arrived for the Marathi literary meet in Pune a day that planned.The Bachchan family was embroiled in more controversy when Abhishek Bachchan’s posters and his video message at an Earth Day function attended by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit were apparently pulled off.
However, the Congress played safe on the Earth Day function saying it was for the organisers to reply to queries.”It for the organisers to answer queries,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.
But Amitabh didn’t hide his disappointment over his son Abhishek’s video message on Earth Hour not being shown at the event in New Delhi, saying he wondered if there “is a pattern in all this?”Narenda Modi also blogged in favour of Amitabh criticising those opposing his presence at the Sea Link function.
“These Talibans of Untouchability have lost all their sensibilities in their pursuit of anti-Gujarat attitudes,” Modi wrote on his latest blog.