Kirron is not conventional politician: Anupam Kher

Chandigarh: Veteran actor Anupam Kher says he does not see his wife and Lok Sabha MP Kirron Kher as a "conventional" politician but finds her interest in Indian politics increased during the last 6-7 years.

This comes despite Kirron saying she is not a politician and did not ask for the party ticket to contest the last Lok Sabha polls from Chandigarh.

In a first of its kind open interaction with his wife here, the 60-year-old actor today put out questions to Kirron on wide-ranging issues including her early days in Chandigarh, development plans for the city, among other things.

"I am not a politician. I do not see myself as politician. I see myself as somebody who is working for my city and fought (elections) to get one more seat to (Narendra) Modi ji. That is how see myself. I did not ask for the ticket. It was given to me and now I am here," Kirron, 60, said during the interaction.

Anupam, quickly added, saying, "I would like to correct you (Kirron). You are not a conventional politician. It (MP) is a political post and you cannot run away from it. You are in politics because of politics."

He shared with the gathering, which included senior bureaucrats Adviser to UT Administrator Vijay Dev, that he had seen her growing interest in politics in the last few years.

"During last 7-8 years of our life, I have seen you have got involved in politics of the country. Every time I came home, you were watching TV, political news...," said Anupam, who neither considers himself as politician nor a BJP party member.

Kirron said she strongly believes in the good governance of BJP.

The actress-politician said she found that several senior leaders of BJP including L K Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley during last NDA government were approachable to people.

On early part of her life, Kirron, who defeated Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, said she wanted to sit for civil services.

"I always thought to sit for IAS exams. I was very ambitious go for (Indian) Foreign Services. But I was distracted by the theatre," said Kirron, who bagged a National Award for her role in 1996 film "Sardari Begum".

While her husband recalled that he gave exam for civil services as his mother wanted him to be an IAS officer.

Anupam then asked how she dealt with negative reactions, MP from Chandigarh said she had stopped reading local newspapers and local TV channels.

Kirron said she wanted to change the time-taking government system in order to ensure speedier work.

She further said that she wanted a film and television institute here rather than film city in order to tap young talent of Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

To a question on imposing tax in the city, Kirron sought time to discuss the issue threadbare before taking any call.