Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit is in the eye of a storm after news of her possible participation at an event in the US later this year.
A tweet by columnist Sunanda Vashisht, who has a strong following on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has posted that the Bollywood star actor of yesteryears is going to perform at an event in Houston (US), which is being organised by a ‘blacklisted’ Pakistani event manager.
The organiser in question is Rehan Siddiqui, who holds regular events involving Bollywood artistes, and alleged to be propagating anti-India narrative.
Minister @kishanreddybjp as MoS Home had publicly announced that Houston based Pakistani origin promoter, Rehan Siddiqi has been blacklisted and had requested Bollywood celebrities to not work with him … There are hundreds of promoters who Bollywood celebrities can collaborate with. Is there any good reason for them to work with Pakistani origin Promoter who is alleged to have ISI links and has been blacklisted by Govt of India? Can Ms @MadhuriDixit’s friends, family and fans inform her about the antecedents of this man and dissuade her? This is terribly discouraging for our security forces and brave men and women who have laid their lives to keep Indian borders safe. I am truly appalled. Hopefully Ms. Dixit will have the good sense to call this off, Sunanda wrote in her X post.
It must be recalled that the members of the Indian diaspora in Houston had urged the government of India to persuade Bollywood actors to not participate in events organised by Rehan Siddiqui.
It was alleged that Siddiqui was using funds raised from these events to finance Kashmir-related anti-India activities in the US.
The Indian community in Houston was very vocal and repeatedly in the past raised the issue with both foreign ministry and union home ministry. This eventually led the Minister of State, Home Affairs, G Kishan Reddy issue an order in June 2020, seeking to advise Indian celebrities not to endorse Siddiqui’s events. The letter also mentioned blacklisting of Siddiqui on the recommendation of the Indian consulate in Houston.
“He owns a radio channel and brings Indian artistes to Houston for Bollywood concerts. He uses his radio channels as a platform to run anti-India propaganda,” said a prominent member of the Indian community in Houston who didn’t want to be named.
“It is important to deprive people like Siddiqui of access to Indian artistes. If Bollywood actors continue to become a part of these events, it will do nothing to help efforts by the Indian community to fight anti-Modi propaganda,” he added.
Siddiqui’s channel is also accused of carrying out anti-India propaganda after the Pulwama attack and the subsequent Balakot airstrikes by India.
It is said that artistes such as actor Saif Ali Khan and singer Shreya Ghoshal were performing in America at the behest of Siddiqi, who was also the promoter of the shows.
Vashisht’s tweet has garnered widespread response, with twitterati condemning Dixit for being a part of the upcoming event by Siddiqui, asking her to desist from doing so.
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