Actor Amitabh Bachchan political presence causes flutter

Amitabh Bachchan today created a flutter by attending the inauguration of a new wing of the Mumbai sea bridge touted as a showpiece project of the Congress, with which the star has had strained ties.

Congress leaders appeared uneasy with the presence of Bachchan — a former Congress MP whom the party has long stopped inviting to its programmes following his differences with the Gandhis — at the opening of the northern carriageway of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, formally named Rajiv Gandhi Setu.

Sonia Gandhi had inaugurated the main section of the bridge just before the Maharashtra elections last October.

Seated next to Congress chief minister Ashok Chavan and deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal on the dais, Bachchan didn’t make any political point, only giving a speech urging the government to build more sea bridges.

But Chavan, a known Sonia loyalist, didn’t keep his feelings a secret. “When I saw Amitabh Bachchan, I felt as if I am at an awards or cultural function,” Chavan said in his speech, betraying his surprise at the actor’s presence.

Another senior Congress leader put it bluntly. “He (Bachchan) should not have been invited as he is associated with the Samajwadi Party, which has been creating problems for the Congress at the Centre. We should have been consulted,” he said. Congress sources claimed the high command was also upset.

Congress leaders claimed they were unaware about Bachchan being called and put the blame on coalition ally Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The NCP holds the public undertakings portfolio and controls the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which has built the sea bridge and organised the programme.

The public undertakings minister, the NCP’s Jaydatta Kshirsagar, saw nothing wrong in inviting Bachchan. “Amitabh Bachchan is an icon. We had in fact invited two icons — Bachchan and Sachin Tendulkar. Since the sea link is an iconic project, we thought it was good to invite two of Mumbai’s biggest icons,” Kshirsagar said.

Tendulkar, captaining Mumbai Indians in the IPL, had declined the invitation.

For Bachchan, today’s controversy comes days after a row over plans by Kerala’s Left government to appoint him tourism ambassador. But CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury had later asserted that the state government would not share the same brand ambassador as the one used by the riot-tainted Narendra Modi. Bachchan had called the Gujarat chief minister a “shahenshah” at a special screening of his film Paa.

Earlier, the star had promoted Uttar Pradesh as its brand ambassador when Mulayam Singh Yadav was chief minister.

Bachchan is a friend of Amar Singh, who fell out with Mulayam and was expelled from the Samajwadi Party.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100325/jsp/nation/story_12259945.jsp