(Image source from: SRK defends Salman)

Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit are in the eye of the storm for their much-criticized performance in a carnival organized by Samajwadi Party in Mulayam Singh Yadav's ancestral home turf Saifai in Etawah district of Uttar Pradesh, especially at a time when hundreds of riot-torn refugee families are left in the lurch in cold in Muzaffarnagar.

Several high-profile film stars including Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Ranvir Singh, Alia Bhatt performed in the Saifai Mahotsav at the event's concluding night, for which the Akhilesh Yadav government shelled out crores of rupees.

Both the UP government and the Bollywood stars are now facing ire for being insensitive to the victims and not doing enough for the welfare of Muzaffarnagar riot victims who are suffering cold in ill-managed relief camps.

Actors Salman Khan and Madhuri Dixit,however, defended their participation in the Saifai Mahotsav as an exercise in charity.

Salman Khan, who is best known for being charitable and sensitive to the less fortunate, came out in his clarification in a Facebook post on Thursday, claiming that there was a deeper reason behind his participation at the event.

"Whenever I visit a place for a performance or a promotion, I see it as an opportunity to help the locals in the areas of healthcare or education," Salman wrote. It was his 15th year of performance at the Saifai Mahotsav.

What more, his brand “Being Human” on behalf of all artistes who performed in the Mahotsav, committed to fund 200 paediatric heart surgeries. “We have also contributed Rs 25 lakh to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital for the purchase of an echo machine, paediatric and neo-natal ventilator and a portable X-ray machine for their paediatric cardiac ICU," Salman, 48, added.

Madhuri, 46, on the other hand, took to Twitter to defend herself. "As artistes and celebrities, we believe in using our reach to help others through drawing attention to the needs of the day," she said.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan has also jumped in defense of his colleagues, deeming media criticism of the actors for doing their jobs as 'unfair'.

"I'll just say two thing about this. One, I will not take a moral high ground and comment on the reasons of my colleagues working or taking on a job. I think it extremely unfair. We don't know the details as to why they have taken it or why they have done it, should they have done it. I can't take a moral high ground, I'm a performer myself. At times I've gone ahead and performed not even realizing that there are issues surrounding the area I'm performing in," said Shah Rukh Khan.

Image Source: Daily Mail

AW: Suchorita Choudhury