No one should be boycotted for showing solidarity: Cong on Deepika

New Delhi, Jan 10 (IANS) Congress leader and former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Friday said that the party was arranging free tickets of Deepika Padukone’s movie “Chhapaak” for students to show solidarity with the actress so that no one can be boycotted.

Responding to a question from IANS, that the release of “Chhapaak” and Ajay Devgn starter “Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior” has become a competition between the Congress and the BJP to provide free tickets, Tharoor said: “We are showing solidarity with Deepika Padukone as number of people have called to boycott her movie.”

“Our idea is that no one should be boycotted in the country, thus to show solidarity our party leaders are arranging tickets of the movie for the students,” the former Union Minister said.

A number of BJP leaders have called for a boycott of “Chhapaak” after the actress visited Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus on Tuesday to show solidarity with the injured students.

During her visit to the JNU campus, Padukone did not utter a single word and stood behind the JNU students union president Aishe Ghose, while former students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar was addressing the students.

In Delhi, Congress leader Alka Lamba and Shivani Chopra, daughter of Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra, had arranged a special screening of “Chhapaak” for students at Delite cinema.

On Thursday, Congress ruled governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh declared the movie to be tax free. Congress ruled union territory Puducherry also declared the movie tax free on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Congress’ students wing National Students Union of India provided free tickets to students while the BJP leaders distributed free tickets of “Tanhaji” in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal.