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. More...
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Mr Bachchan should have gone there and then refused to accept the honour they want to confer on him. He should have used this international platform to create awareness of what is happenning with Indian students in Australia. This racial discrimination has been going on for ages. Just that is keeps raising its ugly head wherever the South Asian population gets noticeably large at any given time. There was a time when such attacks used to happen a lot in USA and UK (they still do) but now it has subsided a lot as people in this part of the world have come to terms with what we Indians have achieved and what we are capable of. By refusing the honour, Mr Bachchan has told the Australians in no uncertain terms that this kind of behaviour won’t be tolerated. But maybe he could have had a better impact if he had taken some prominent Indian government official with him to Australia to show the gravity of the situation.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, one has to wonder as to the real motives of Mr.Bachan's gesture; was it a sincere and genuine concern for the victims as well as being a protest against these unpardonable acts, or was he worried about the backlash that might have erupted had he accepted the honour? Let's hope it was the former...
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