Pakistani star Salman Saqib Shaikh aka Mani has responded to criticism that he and his wife Hira Mani received after posting pictures and videos of them distributing ration amongst the underprivileged amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Mani took to Instagram and shared a video wherein he could be seen with wheat flour bags and sharing with the fans where it will be distributed.
He captioned the video, “Ration 6 batch Alhumdullilah.”
Mani while responding to criticism wrote, “As pop culture celebrities when we share posts of our material wealth - our show ratings, our wardrobe, our holidays - it is labeled as "trending".
“However when we try to use our fame to do some good, it is unfairly being labeled as "cheap publicity stunt". When celebrities flaunt their wardrobes, their cars, their dogs or their homes, it's trendy, tasteful, cute and stylish....But when they try to do something good, so others can follow suit or join their drive, it's suddenly... cheap publicity!!! And that's the feedback we used to get from the Insta account in the comments section.
“In this lockdown when we saw the plight of the starving daily wage worker, Hira and I started a small donation drive at our place with the funds we had and put it up on Instagram....we got a backlash, we just couldn't understand!
"We put up pictures on Instagram so whoever knew anyone deserving could contact us and refer that needy family. However, after a week we started running out of funds and appealed to others to join in. We also encouraged fans to start similar donations in their areas because our reach was limited.
"Pretty soon brands started contacting us and donating food supplies. However, we kept getting negative feedback from social media.
“Why is my question? We didn't put up pictures with the people who we were donating to, we didn't show queues of deserving white-collar workers at our place. We don't even go down to meet the people who come to our doorstep, so we don't embarrass them and they don't feel that we are doing it for publicity. And yet...we are disliked for it.
"And yet..... We continue with our mission.”
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