Global Citizen 'disappointed' with politics around Festival

Global Citizen India (GCI) is "deeply disappointed" with Global Citizen Festival getting dragged into politics.
The festival, which is being held here in partnership with Maharashtra government, will have rock band Coldplay performing on November 19.
Congress and NCP today attacked the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government for waiver of entertainment tax and rentals to the GCI's upcoming event.
The opposition has also complained to the State Election Commission (SEC) demanding that the event be postponed until after the ongoing civic elections process in the state.
According to GCI the proceeds from the event will be used solely for philanthropic purposes.

"As one of the fastest growing youth movements in India, Global Citizen is delighted to see such overwhelming support for our gender equality, education and clean water and sanitation campaigns.

"We are a non-partisan movement making efforts to create long term change and work towards getting India to take on a leadership role in achieving the end of extreme poverty. We are deeply disappointed that this work is being caught in the middle of politics as usual," GCI said in a statement.
The organization said the campaign wants to bring leaders from across the political spectrum together.
"Our platform aims to unify and bring together all stakeholders, catalysing the youth using popular culture, to ensure India takes on a leadership role in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

"Suresh Prabhu, Chandrababu Naidu, P Vijayan, Vasundhara Raje, Meira Kumar, Jairam Ramesh, Poonam Mahajan, Aditya Thackeray, Salman Khurshid, Milind Deora, are some of the leaders who Global Citizens have called on, whose achievements have been highlighted, and who have made commitments in response to the voice of young India and who have championed issues."
Apart from Coldplay the event will see Bollywood stars Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, AR Rahman, Amitabh Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor and Katrina Kaif making appearance.