Bachchan rejects award after racist attacks

Amitabh Bachchan has refused an honorary doctorate from an Australian university because of racial attacks on Indian students there.

Bachchan explained his decision on his blog, acknowledging that he was planning to accept but then decided against the award from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane.

The actor posted: "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 called on blog readers whom he describes as "extended family" to tell him whether he made the right decision to reject the honour.