Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan said Saturday he may reject an honorary doctorate from a Brisbane university to protest at a wave of attacks on Indian students in Australia. "My conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow countrymen," Bachchan's blog post said.
But the Indian movie icon said he would ask for fan feedback on whether he should turn down the degree. "I shall put this up as my poll question and shall feel obliged if (my) extended family (of fans) can indicate to me their opinion for me to be able to take the correct action," he wrote.
A series of attacks on Indian students has unleashed a furious reaction in India where the media has branded it "curry bashing." Photos of the latest attack victim Sravan Kumar Theerthala, lying in his hospital bed in a coma, were plastered across Saturday's newspaper front pages. Theerthala was left fighting for his life after being stabbed last weekend with a screwdriver by gatecrashers at a party in Melbourne. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder.
Bachchan, 66, had previously said he would accept the honorary doctorate from Brisbane's Queensland University of Technology for his contribution to the world of entertainment. He was due to accept it in July. The baritone-voiced superstar expressed "great dismay and shock" at the attacks and said he meant "no disrespect to the institution that honours me" in wanting to refuse the degree.
Bachchan, known as "The Big B," has a huge following in movie-mad India and is a daily fixture on television. His statements came as India said Saturday it was "closely monitoring" the situation of its students in Australia after the attacks which have raised diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
External affairs spokesman Vishnu Prakash said India had received Australia's assurances that "they will be doing what is necessary to ensure that such attacks don't reoccur." He was speaking a day after Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd phoned his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to pledge "the overwhelming majority of Indian students were safe" in his country, according to a government statement in New Delhi. Indians form the second-largest group of overseas students in Australia and there has been a spate of attacks on students from the subcontinent.
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