Bachchan turns down Australian doctorate to protest attacks

Actor Amitabh Bachchan has reacted to racial attacks on Indian students in Australia by rejecting an honourary 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 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 Andhra Pradesh, who is battling for life in a Melbourne hospital after being stabbed by a screwdriver by a group of teens.