Bachchan turns down Australian doctorate as mark of protest

New Delhi, May 30 (PTI) Bollywood superstar Amitabh
Bachchan has reacted to racial attacks on Indian students in
Australia by rejecting an honorary doctorate offered to him by
an Australian university.

The Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane had
offered the 66-year-old veteran a doctorate for his
contribution to the world of entertainment and Bachchan had
earlier accepted the title.

The honour was to be conferred on the star in July as
a part of celebrations to commemorate a retrospective of his
films to be inaugurated in the city.

"I have been witnessing with great dismay and shock,
the recent violent attacks on Indian students in Australia, on
the electronic media the entire day," Bachchan wrote on his
blog.

"I mean no disrespect to the Institution that honours
me, but under the present circumstances, where citizens of my
own country are subjected to such acts of inhuman horror, my
conscience does not permit me to accept this decoration from a
country that perpetrates such indignity to my fellow
countrymen," he added.

Australia has recently seen a series of attacks on
Indian students, the most serious being the assault of Shravan
Kumar, a 25-year-old student from southern state of Andhra
Pradesh who is battling for life in a hospital in Australia
after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens in a
weekend attack that also left three of his friends injured.
PTI