Mumbai:
Activist Swami Agnivesh held a press conference this morning in Mumbai to explain what prompted him to join reality show Bigg Boss.
The 74-year-old activist enters the Bigg Boss house tonight, but says he is a guest and not a participant.
He also says he is not being paid for his appearance on the show. Swami Agnivesh exited the anti-corruption movement fronted by Anna Hazare after a public and bitter falling out.
"Hoping that through the programme I will be able to remove the negativity in people's minds, country needs to be woken up. People need a guru and this is a good way to reach people," he said.
Swami Agnivesh, who said he has watched many episodes of the reality show, was approached by show producers five days ago. He sees the show as a "powerful medium to reach the youth with my message."
The activist is likely to enter the Bigg Boss house later today.
Swami Agnivesh was in the eye of a storm soon after anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare's hunger strike when a video surfaced in which he was seen talking to an unidentified person asking him to deal strongly with the Gandhian. This led to his estrangement from Team Anna.
He will be the fifth male inmate to be part of the Bigg Boss house, which is dominated by female contestants like Pooja Bedi, Juhi Parmar, Shonali Nagrani and Mehak Chahal among others.
The Swami will make an unlikely contestant on the show , which is popular for the cat-fights among the members of the house.
Highlights of the press conference:
The 74-year-old activist enters the Bigg Boss house tonight, but says he is a guest and not a participant.
He also says he is not being paid for his appearance on the show. Swami Agnivesh exited the anti-corruption movement fronted by Anna Hazare after a public and bitter falling out.
"Hoping that through the programme I will be able to remove the negativity in people's minds, country needs to be woken up. People need a guru and this is a good way to reach people," he said.
Swami Agnivesh, who said he has watched many episodes of the reality show, was approached by show producers five days ago. He sees the show as a "powerful medium to reach the youth with my message."
The activist is likely to enter the Bigg Boss house later today.
Swami Agnivesh was in the eye of a storm soon after anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare's hunger strike when a video surfaced in which he was seen talking to an unidentified person asking him to deal strongly with the Gandhian. This led to his estrangement from Team Anna.
He will be the fifth male inmate to be part of the Bigg Boss house, which is dominated by female contestants like Pooja Bedi, Juhi Parmar, Shonali Nagrani and Mehak Chahal among others.
The Swami will make an unlikely contestant on the show , which is popular for the cat-fights among the members of the house.
Highlights of the press conference:
- Was approached five days ago by show producers
- Saw many episodes, didn't see anything objectionable
- See it as a powerful medium to reach the youth with my message
- Not interested in the money, I want to help introduce change in society
- People fight on the show but no worse than how MPs sometimes behave
- Hoping through the programme will be able to remove the negativity in people's minds
- People need a guru and this is a good way to reach people
- Religion today has too much dogmatism and ritualism
- Glad Anna is talking about changes in his team. I was saying this all along as well. There should be greater transparency and accountability even among us
- We may exchange allegations (on Team Anna) but we are all working towards the same goal - ending corruption
