NEW DELHI: An official in the Ministry of Urban Development said no stars would like to invest much time in the drive leaving behind their shootings and endorsements. The campaign mandates the Swachh Bharat ambassadors to nominate a set of four to five names, thus building a chain of ambassadors across the country to drive the initiative. Here also, little has been heard from the nominees.
In September 2015, at a gala event in Rashtrapati Bhawan, President Pranab Mukherjee had called for immediate remedial measures through effective actions by all stakeholders, which meant the Swachh Bharat ambassadors too.
Officials in the Ministry of Urban Development said the states also have missed out on the opportunity to leverage their popularity to promote and popularise the clean campaign, the mission of which is a clean India by 2019.
Priyanka Chopra
She was seen cleaning up a stretch in the Versova locality in Mumbai where she was shooting back in November 2014. But she has not been seen picking up a broom after that. “We had put up a big set over there for the basti (village) scene, and I remember there are people who live here, and there are children who play on mounds of garbage here, and that’s their life,” she had said then.
The star has hardly been seen in any event promoting the cause.
Kiran Bedi
After her nomination, her NGO, Navjyoti India Foundation, engaged in the resettlement of a colony called Bawana and other one near Delhi, converted dirty lanes into neat ones, garbage-filled parks into green and the garbage-dumping grounds into shops and living homes. The BJP leader has not been seen since then taking up the brooms at per level.
Aamir Khan
Little has been seen or heard about him as far as his duty as a brand ambassador goes. The actor was present on Rajpath where Prime Minister Narendra Modi administered oath to everyone to help keep India clean, after launching the campaign. But that was all of him even though he is regularly seen spending time in other promotional activities.
Shashi Tharoor
While his nomination by the PM had raised many an eye brow in the Congress circle but Tharoor nonetheless picked up the broom and landed at a beach in his constituency Thiruvananthapuram in October 2014. Offering a clarification for backing the rival BJP’s initiative, Tharoor wrote, “Before my actions today are distorted: a clean India requires no label. Why cede Gandhiji’s sanitation drive to any party? A national cause.” But has he engaged in any of the cleanliness drive after that? No reaction was available from his side.
Sachin Tendulkar
He has lent his voice to Swachh Bharat anthem and did pick up a broom to clean a stretch of a busy road in Mumbai soon after the campaign’s launch in October 2014. The Bharat Ratna is seen in innumerable functions and in sporting events but hardly at any event that promote the cleanliness campaigns.