Bollywood actor Pooja Bhatt has reacted to BJP leaders’ claims that actors are being paid to walk with Rahul Gandhi in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The actor quoted from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: “Certainly they have a right to think that, and they have a right to full respect for their opinions…but before I can live with other people, I have to live with myself. The only thing that does not obey the rule of the majority is the conscience of a person” – decimates the statement. Actor Sushant Singh, who also dated Rahul Gandhi and claimed it was his first presence at any political rally, shared Pooja Bhatt’s tweet.
Apart from Pooja Bhatt who joined the yatra in Hyderabad and Sushant Singh, several Bollywood personalities including Amol Palekar, Sandhya Gokhale, Ria Sen, Rashmi Desai, Akanksha Puri joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra in its Maharashtra leg. BJP leader Nitesh Rane shared a message on WhatsApp claiming that the actors are being paid by the Congress for the walk. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also shared a screenshot and questioned the credibility of those who are “willing to associate with Rahul Gandhi even for some money”.
The shared screenshot was meant to be a brief for the actors who will be joining the yatra in Madhya Pradesh. Asking for the “best possible price for a 15-minute guest appearance,” the report said actors could choose their own time slot and travel and logistics would be taken care of.
The Congress dismissed the claims and said such ‘fake WhatsApp’ forwards without name and number only show how desperate the BJP is to discredit the yatra. “It is the BJP that has mastered the art of pulling in celebrities to portray artificial support for them, not the Congress. Don’t we remember the celebrity tweets on petrol and diesel rates during the UPA government and during the farmers’ protests?” Maharashtra Congress leader Sachin Sawant said.
