Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: Celebrities and Politicians Join Hands

On October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi started the great “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” of cleaning entire India by 2019. The objective was to provide sanitation facilities to all rural and semi-urban areas of the country, and proper solid and waste water treatment, including removal of garbage, debris and unauthorised encroachments from roads, markets and residential places. On October 2, wielding a broom in his hand, NaMo started his campaign from Rajpath, accompanied by other officials, and requested everyone to make this mission a success.

To encourage more and more people to take part in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, PM Narendra Modi being a fan of modern age social media marketing invited nine people to be a part of this great clean India campaign. PM initiated a chain cleaning mission by inviting the nine eminent personalities like cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar, Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, industrialist Anil Ambani, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, film actors Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kamal Hassan, yoga guru Ramdev and the entire team of popular TV serial “Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma”. PM’s main motive was to make the movement a mass people’s movement through viral marketing so that these nine invitees nominate nine more people to join the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and in this way the chain would continue and become bigger and bigger.

Nine invited celebrities accept PM’s invitation through social media and tweets

  • On 2 October, Anil Ambani said in a statement that he was honoured to be invited by Prime Minister to join the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” and he would dedicate himself to this movement wholeheartedly and will invite nine other leading Indians to join him in the “Clean India” campaign.
  • Congress leader and former Union minister Shashi Tharoor had accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation and said that he feels honoured to join this ambitious programme and wants this programme to be a continued one and not just an act of “tokenism”. He tweeted, “Honoured to accept the invitation of PM”
  • Goa Governor Mridula Sinha responded to the invite and said that this is every citizen’s mission and hoped that Goa becomes the first state to make this a success.
  • Sachin Tendulkar also responded, “I humbly accept the challenge”. In fact, he posted a small video on his Facebook official fan page, where he said, “It’s a great idea for our country to do a clean-up act.”
  • Actress Priyanka Chopra tweeted, “I humbly accept respected Prime Minster Narendra Modiji’s challenge. This is an idea that is long overdue.” She said that if all people do not come forward to support this programme, then nothing can happen. Only people of the country can make a difference.
  • Baba Ramdev on receiving the invite tweeted, “My Idea of Swachh Bharat is Clean India on roads, sanitation for all and every citizen with swachh and spiritually pious heart.”
  • Actor Kamal Haasan was thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for inviting him in this mission. In fact, he also posted a video in which he said that he is involved in this cleaning movement for the past 20 years by setting up a social service organisation with the help of his fans and now he feels all the more responsible to make the programme a huge success where he will try to bring not just nine but nine million more if he can. He said, “It is not connected to just one party. It is connected to those one billion plus that constitutes this country. Thank you, for awakening my commitment again”.
  • Bollywood superstar Salman Khan tweeted, “Me and my Foundation accept the invite from our honourable Prime Minister for Swachh Bharat and will give our 100 per cent for My Clean India.”
  • The entire team of the soap opera ‘Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chashma’ also said that they would be involved in the cleaning mission and make the Prime Minister’s vision successful.

Bollywood celebrities

Besides the nine celebrities, actor Aamir Khan was the first celebrity from Bollywood who was involved in the clean India mission from day one. Aamir Khan shared the stage with PM NaMo on 2nd October when the programme was launched. He also tweeted, “Sirf ek kadam”. In fact he took the pledge with NaMo at the India Gate to thousands of people, including children and government employees for remaining committed to cleanliness.

Others from Bollywood fraternity like Parineeti Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Ajay Devgan, Neha Dhupia, Hritik Roshan pledged for a clean India and appealed to everyone to carry the message for a ‘Swachh Bharat’ forward. Hritik Roshan with filmmaker Subash Ghai participated in a tree plantation drive in Mumbai on October 2. Indian shooter Gagan Narang, Indian boxer Vijender Singh, BJP MP and Bhoj Puri actor Manoj Tiwari, also joined the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ministers, political parties

HRD Minsiter Smriti Irani was involved in the cleaning campaign along with NaMo. Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched the Swachh Bharat campaign from his constituency in Lucknow. On October 4, Rajnath Singh ordered Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi to ensure that all police stations and nearby complexes are cleaned within a week, and he may make surprise visits. He also advised Bassi to observe the cleanliness drive in police buildings. Former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (S) supremo H D Deve Gowda also joined PM Narendra Modi’s Clean India campaign. He took a broom and swept the Hassan railway station on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti. Union Minister for Water Resource Uma Bharti visited the Nagar Nigam office at Jhansi and administered oath to the employees to join the campaign.

The Supreme Court has also joined in the campaign under the direction of Chief Justice of India HL Dattu and Secretary General Ravindra Maithani by involving all employees and registrars to clean  the Supreme court premises as well as the adjoining areas.

Political parties like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), too, joined in where few of the AAP members, including Kejriwal was seen cleaning up a part of the roads near the PM’s residence in Delhi. A number of corporations have also joined in the campaign.

This is just the beginning. We just hope that more and more people, not only the celebrities and the politicians, but also the general public come forward to take part in this great initiative. The enthusiasm should be kept going.

 

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