MUMBAI: Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was spotted at the ‘Swacch Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyan’ – a drive aimed at cleaning Mumbai’s slums, along with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray.
Just as Shiv Sena executive and son of late Shiv Sena Supremo Balasaheb Thackeray- Uddhav Thackeray was anointed party president; his first order of business on Wednesday seemed to be to clean up the city’s act, quite literally. Roping in Thackeray family’s long-time friend Amitabh Bachchan seemed the most natural thing to do, to promote the ‘Swacch Mumbai Prabodhan Abhiyan’ – the drive aimed at cleaning out the festering slums in Mumbai.
The Shiv Sena have maintained that unauthorized slums in Mumbai have created big problems for the city, in terms of health and sanitation, so the drive was the perfect opportunity to do something about it. Amitabh Bachchan himself visited the slums, broom in hand, ready to sweep clean the dirt and disease-inducing conditions for the poor slum-dwellers. Bachchan also inaugurated the virtual classrooms of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The Big B, as Amitabh Bachchan is fondly known, is a man of action and complete dedication. Never one to arrive at any event late, Senior Bachchan made it a point to pencil in the slum cleaning drive in his already packed schedule.
His ties with the Thackeray family have been generations old, and who can forget Mr. Bachchan’s teary eyed farewell to the fearless Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb at his funeral last year. And now with the able young leader Uddhav stepping into his father’s rather large shoes, one can only hope that the close association between the Bachchan family and the Thackeray family stays intact. Which it most certainly will, for Amitabh Bachchan is a man known to maintain relationships and support his friends fiercely.
