M A I N   N E W S

Now, Abhishek sidelined at Earth Hour event; Big B upset
Kumar Rakesh
Tribune News Service

A few hours before the show was to start, apparently the audio-visual featuring Abhishek had been asked to be removed. Amitabh wrote on his blog

New Delhi, March 28
The Congress’ discomfort with any association with the Bachchan family sparked off another controversy after Abhishek Bachchan was blanked out from an Earth Hour function, attended by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, yesterday despite being the campaign’s brand ambassador, which ran for weeks to spread public awareness about climate concerns.

His father Amitabh Bachchan, whose presence at a recent Mumbai function attended by Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan had kicked up a row, went public with his and his son’s disappointment over the episode.

“A few hours before the show was to start, apparently the audio-visual featuring Abhishek had been asked to be removed and posters bearing his photograph as the ambassador stopped from being displayed,” Amitabh wrote on his blog.

The senior Bachchan then wondered if there was more to it. “Am I hallucinating, or is there a pattern in all this?” he wrote. He added that his son was also disappointed as he had worked hard for the campaign. Abhishek was signed as a brand ambassador of the Earth Hour campaign by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). He held many public events and press conferences, including in Delhi, to spread awareness about it and asking people to switch off lights between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm yesterday.

What has given it a political twist, despite Dikshit’s claims that she had nothing to do with Abhishek’s omission, is that a section of the Congress had earlier strongly objected to the presence of Amitabh Bachchan at a Mumbai function attended by Maharashtra CM Ashok Chavan. They based their objections on the ground that Amitabh is a brand ambassador of Narendra Modi-ruled Gujarat. However, many people blamed the souring of relations between the Bachchans and the Sonia Gandhi’s family as the prime factor in egging Gandhi loyalists to gun for Chavan. Chavan said he did not know that Bachchan would also attend the function.

Sources said the row over Amitabh’s presence might have prompted the Delhi Government to ensure the removal of any mention of Abhishek Bachchan due to the presence of Dikshit.Dikshit said she was invited by the WWF to attend the event and she had nothing to do with the removal of Abhishek Bachchan’s audio-visuals and posters.

She said the WWF should be asked about it. WWF officials have so far maintained silence over the affair.

Abhishek, who was away to Goa, was more circumspect in his reaction. He tweeted, “I had sent a video msg (message) for all at the event, thanking them for their participation and support, but for some reason that couldn’t be shown.”Senior BJP leader and leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly VK Malhotra was quick to latch onto the issue and demanded that Amitabh Bachchan be appointed as the brand ambassador of the Commonwealth Games to be held in October this year.