Azhar and Rubina, Mumbai’s slum kids, who took home international appreciation for their acting skills in the Oscar winner film Slumdog Millionaire, now want to showcase their talent in politics.
On Thursday, when they came to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi, equally Azhar and Rubina expressed their intention to campaign for the party. They said, “We want to campaign for the Congress party in the coming Lok Sabha election. We want to go to the voters to tell them to cast their vote for the Congress.”
And what would they ask of Sonia Gandhi if they do get to meet her? Rubina said, “We don’t have a fine house to live in. We have made the country proud by acting in a film which won eight Oscar awards. We feel that we have done a good job for our country so we want Sonia ji to give us a good house.”
When asked if they want a home in return for their campaigning for the party, they didn’t say anything. And do they want to be politicians when they grow up? Rubina says, “No, I want to become an actress. I want to be one like Priety Zinta.” And Azhar uttered his desire to become Salman Khan.
In Delhi, the Congress has not arrive out with any official stand on whether they will utilize these kids for election campaigning. The party has only clued-up the media about their meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Though sometime back, president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee, Kripashankar Singh told reporters that the Congress may use these two kids for their election campaigning.
Soon after that, questions about roping these star kids for election campaigning were raised. Even well-known director Shekhar Kapoor wrote on his blog, “Of course the kids’ lives can never be the same, and provided their education does not suffer, why not ? Why should anyone’s life not be bettered if it can.” At the same time, Kapoor is disturbed about the impact it will have on kids this age to be part of the gloomy procedures of election campaigns.
So if the Congress does decide to use these kids, this issue will not go without huge debate and argument. But it seems that the congress party is well-known of the fact that any publicity is good publicity. And it’s great if it happens at the time when elections are round the corner.
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