Bollywood celebs skip voting to attend IIFA

Practice what you preach, Bollywood! In spite of relentless campaigns and earnest implorations from all quarters to vote, the holier than thou denizens of Bollywood chose to give voting a skip in Mumbai for IIFA which is being held in the US this time. What's even more despicable is the fact that these are the same men and women who exhorted us to vote and also participated in fierce debates on TV channels till about a few days back. Prime among them being Vivek Oberoi who campaigned for the BJP this time. Sources say that Vivek had inked a contract with IIFA several months back and couldn't say no or opt out without incurring huge financial losses. Reportedly, the actor felt guilty about not voting but had no other option available as well. Deepika Padukone's a curious case. She says she is an Indian citizen although there are some legal complications (Deepika was born in Copenhagen). She had told us last time that she would vote and go to IIFA. But then the promise evaporated just like those made by our politicians when she landed in US yesterday. Others who have flown to the states include Priyanka Chopra, Richa Chadda (who also claimed in a leading newspaper that she would vote), Hrithik Roshan, Imtiaz Ali, Kareena Kapoor, Arunoday Singh, Yami Gautam, Rakesh OmPrakash Mehra, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi, Sonakshi Sinha, Anupam Kher to name a few A-listers. Salman Khan too couldn’t cast his vote as he is in Poland shooting. But there are a few exceptions. Celebrities who chucked IIFA and chose to vote for their country. These include Vidya Balan, SRK and Aamir Khan (Aamir doesn’t attend award ceremonies), Preity Zinta, Manyata Dutt, Sohail Khan, Rishi Kapoor, Gulzar and Prasoon Joshi. Prasoon was overheard telling a TV channel that he chose nation over IIFA. ‘I am going to IIFA too but only after voting,’ said Prasoon. Vidya too, was seen proudly flashing her inked finger while SRK tweeted that today he would be getting an opportunity to choose our country's future. Well, all we can say is it's downright deplorable on the part of those who chose to fly off to the US on Mumbai's most important day. What's even more pathetic is these are the same celebrities who first appear on television to bash politicians. When you don't want to exercise your voting right, you have no authority to sling mud at the elected representative's wrongdoings, we say.