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Facing death threats, abuse for her portrayal of Padmavati, Padukone to skip the summit which will be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi on Nov 28 in Hyderabad

Under vitriolic attack from right-wing fringe groups and facing death threats for her portrayal of Rani Padmavati in Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming flick Padmavati, actor Deepika Padukone has reportedly decided to skip the Indo-US Global Entrepreneurship Summit that will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Hyderabad on November 28.

While Padukone has herself not commented yet on why she had decided to give the event, which will see US president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka leading a powerful American delegation, a miss government sources have told some sections of the media that the actor will not be attending the summit.

Former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni has also reportedly dropped out of the event, sources said.

While Padukone has most likely dropped out of the event due to the abuse and threats she has been facing for playing the titular role in Padmavati and the fact that a majority of these attacks have been directed at her by people and outfits patronized by Narendra Modi’s BJP, ‘she has so far refused to comment on the issue.

The summit – an event that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will no doubt showcase as a major endorsement from global entrepreneurs of the supposedly investor-friendly policies of the Centre – will have ‘Women First, Prosperity for All’ as its theme. Ironical, given the broadside that Padukone has been facing in recent weeks, with leaders from the BJP and fringe group Karni Sena announcing bounties for killing her or chopping her nose off.

According to Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, IT and Industry, Telangana government, who is part of the team of bureaucrats overseeing the preparations for the high-profile event to be held in the capital of the newly-formed state confirmed that Padukone, who had earlier agreed to participate in a panel discussion to be organised during the summit, has opted out.

“There is a panel discussion on ‘Hollywood to Nollywood (the Nigerian film industry) to Bollywood’. Earlier, Deepika Padukone was expected to be in that session, but she has now declined. We are trying (to see) who can replace her,” Ranjan told mediapersons in Hyderabad.

The senior Telganana government official added: “Others have also dropped. For example, MS Dhoni was supposed to be in one of the sessions. Now he has declined. People are declining for various reasons. Because Dhoni has declined, we have to now bring in Sania (Mirza), (Pullela) Gopichand,” Ranjan told reporters.

With days to go before Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, scheduled to be held between November 28 and 30, the event is already drawing some negative publicity.

Earlier this month, reports had emerged that the Telangana government, with the approval of the Centre, had engaged in large-scale ‘beautification’ drive of Hyderabad wherein state agencies were rounding up beggars and slum dwellers from across the capital and relocating them to shelters for the poor. The action was being taken in a bid to give foreign delegates, including Ivanka Trump, coming for the event, a false impression that Hyderabad is a beggar-free city.

On Tuesday, a section of the media reported that at least two women who had been rounded up as part of this cover-up drive and parceled out to an ashram, were actually English-speaking, educated women who had worked in foreign countries and had huge financial assets within Hyderabad and abroad. These two middle-aged women had been forced to take to begging as personal circumstances had made them mentally disturbed.

According to a report by news agency PTI, the Telangana Prisons Department, in coordination with the local police and civic administration, has caught and shifted as many as 235 male beggars and over 130 women beggars to Anand Ashrams since October 20 as part of the ‘cover-up’ drive.

“Two women, aged 50 and 44, both natives of Hyderabad, were among some 30 women caught begging near a dargah (shrine) in Langer Hauz. Police took them to Anand Ashram on November 11,” a senior Telangana government official was quoted as saying.

To their astonishment, the Ashram staff found that the two women spoke English well and the elder of the two even told the Ashram staff that she had an MBA degree, and once worked as an accountant in London before returning to Hyderabad. The 50-year-old woman’s son was reportedly contacted by the authorities and confirmed the story.

“The younger woman said she was a Green Card holder and had worked in the US”, said K Arjun Rao, superintendent of the Cherlapalli open-air jail and the Ashram in-charge.

Arjun Rao told mediapersons that: “The 50-year-old woman had lost her husband and was facing certain problems… she had approached a godman, and on his advise started begging near the dargah. Her son is an architect based in the US.”

Rao added that the younger woman had taken to begging after her relatives cheated her out of her share of the ancestral property.

The two women have been handed over to their relatives, Rao informed, adding that they were asked to give a written undertaking saying that they would not return to begging.

There is, however, no word from the Telangana government or the Centre on how they would ensure that the two women, and scores of other beggars detained as part of the drive, will refrain from returning to begging once the Global Entrepreneurship Summit concludes. There is also no roadmap on what the state and federal governments plan to do to provide for the destitute women and men who are forced into begging because of various personal circumstances. Clearly, the razzmatazz of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit or the imminent high-octane addresses expected from Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Ivanka Trump will not alleviate the condition of the beggars of Hyderabad.

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