Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan on Saturday threatened to 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, 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” . 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. Meanwhile, an Australian student stabbed at a Melbourne train station by two thieves last Monday told the Press Trust of India: “My advice to every Indian student now who wants to come to Australia is, ‘Please don’t come.’ ”
“There’s no life here,” Baljinder Singh told the news agency from where he was recovering in a Melbourne hospital.