MoU With Parineeti as Brand Ambassador Ended in 2017: Haryana Govt

Some reports said that the actor was dropped as brand ambassador of the state’s Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign.

Parineeti Chopra was appointed as the brand ambassador of the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign in 2015.

(Photo: IANS)

(Note: This story was earlier published with the headline ‘Parineeti Chopra Dropped as Brand Ambassador by Haryana Govt?’, and was updated following the denial by the Haryana Government. The error is regretted)

A day after reports of Haryana government dropping Parineeti Chopra from the post of the state’s Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign brand ambassador were doing the rounds, the Women and Child Development Department said that an MoU signed with the actor had ended in April, 2017, news agency ANI reported.

“Thereafter the MoU was never renewed,” the department said.

The rumours of Parineeti’s removal came after the actor tweeted against the police brutality on students of Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University.

Unlike other celebrities who were measured in their criticism of the state violence, Parineeti also brought the Citizenship Amendment Act in her tweet which said, “If this is what’s gonna happen everytime a citizen expresses their view, forget #CAB, we should pass a bill and not call our country a democracy anymore! Beating up innocent human beings for speaking their mind? BARBARIC.”

The Manohar Lal Khattar-led Haryana government had not officially confirmed Parineeti Chopra’s removal. However, there was a report which stated that, Yogender Malik, the Haryana CM’s advisor on the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign, has said that “as per my information, Parineeti Chopra is no longer our brand ambassador.”

According to a report in The Indian Express on Thursday, Malik said, “She (Parineeti Chopra) participated in just one function in Gurgaon in July 2015 when the government had announced her nomination for the responsibility of Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign brand ambassador.”

Parineeti is from Haryana’s Ambala town and was appointed as the brand ambassador of the Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao campaign launched by the Haryana government in 2015. The actor’s appointment was made at an event attended by Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar, US Ambassador Richard Verma, Kavita Jain, Minister for Women and Child Development and Louis-Georges Arsenault, country representative of UNICEF.