No tax for Dedh Ishqiya in Uttar Pradesh!

The Samajwadi Party government exempts Dedh Ishqiya from tax ; Mulayam and Akhilesh camp in Saifai to welcome Madhuri-Salman

In what is being seen as the ruling Samajwadi Party’s gift to Bollywood star Madhuri Dixit, the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh has exempted her comeback film, Dedh Ishqiya, from entertainment tax.

Madhuri Dixit arrived in Saifai, the native village of the Yadav clan, on Wednesday, in a State-owned aircraft.

She was escorted into the village like a VVIP, in a cavalcade of limousines and SUVs.

She will give a dance performance there tonight, as the curtain comes down on the 15-day Saifai Mahotsava. This annual cultural extravaganza is held in memory of Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh’s nephew.

The state plane then flew back to fetch other Bollywood guests, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh and Soha Ali Khan. They will put up a joint show at the festival.

Exemption of entertainment tax is usually granted to

films about patriotism or some serious social issue. Dedh Ishqiya has got the exemption because “some parts of the movie have been shot in Lucknow,” said a senior bureaucrat.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and Two Little Indians were also exempted from paying entertainment tax by the present government.

The government has been criticised for waiving the tax and spending money on an entertainment extravaganza when the state has recently seen violent communal clashes and the victims have not been rehabilitated.

"Muzaffarnagar was allowed to burn and the biting chill may have snuffed out the life of as many as 34 kids in the so-called ‘relief camps’ around the riot hit town, but neither the ruling Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, nor his chief minister son Akhilesh can spare the time to assuage the wounds of the victims,” argues former state Congress president Rita Bahuguna Joshi.

The entire Yadav family, including multi-portfolio minister Shivpal Yadav, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, Budain MP and Akhilesh’s cousin, Dharmendra Yadav, and the Chief Minister’s wife and Kannauj MP, Dimple Yadav, are all camping in Saifai which has turned into a VVIP town.