Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has
dismissed as "hogwash" suggestions that the Congress is to
blame for the controversy over his presence at Bandra-Worli
Sea Link function here two days ago, and said Sonia Gandhi's
party has more pressing issues to attend to than belittle him.
"The media attempts to insinuate that the Congress
Party is responsible for this (row) and that it is a
deliberate attempt to deface me is a lot of hogwash. The
Congress is a large outfit that has governed this land for the
largest tenure in the political history of our nation and
continues to do so," the actor said in his latest blog post.
"It has many important and more valuable issues to
attend to than be interested in puny little me. These
assumptions and accusations being made by the media are
completely wrong and have no bearing. They certainly do not
have my acceptance or my belief in them."
The filmstar said he was invited by Maharashtra's
Minister in-charge of the Public Works Department to attend a
function for the inauguration of the remaining four lanes of
the cable stayed bridge on Wednesday.
"The Minister wrote to me on his formal letter head
and when I went there, was greeted with grace and honour and
respect, not just by the Minister, but by the honourable Chief
Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and all other distinguished
guests and dignitaries," Big B said.
’I will promote Gujarat…stop me if you can’
Hitting out at critics who have
attacked him for his association with BJP-ruled Gujarat, he is promoting
tourism in the state and not its Chief Minister Narendra Modi
and no one can stop him from doing that.
"I am not promoting the politics or the governance of
Mr Narendra Modi the chief minister, or Mr Narendra Modi the
individual. Gujarat does not belong to Mr Modi. It belongs to
India and I as a proud citizen of my country, have every
constitutional right to promote a part of my country," he said.
"I want to see...who is going to stop me from
glorifying them!! attack me, abuse me, crucify me...do what
you can and will...I shall not stop. I am going to do it!!" he
wrote.
Describing Modi as a democratically elected and
constitutionally appointed head of the state, Bachchan said,
"if people have a problem with him, why did you elect him? If
he has done some wrong conduct a legal enquiry and let the law
of the land take its normal course. We will honour and have
faith in the law of the land.
"But if you are going to abuse and attack me for
associating myself with Gujarat because you find fault in Mr
Modi its chief minister, then please also abuse and attack all
others that associate themselves with Gujarat."
He further wrote, "If you question the appointment of
Mr Modi as the democratically elected constitutional head of a
State, then please question every democratically elected
honourable member of the legislative Assembly and Parliament."
Bachchan said Gujarat was there before Modi and shall
remain even after him. "The divine temple of Somnath in
Gujarat was not built personally by Mr Modi, nor did he
construct the ancient civilisations of Harappa, nor did he
have a hand in the existence of the lost city of Dwarka, or
the beauteous white soils of the Rann of Kutch, and neither
did he order the construction of the largest number of
heritage sites in the state.
"These are all vital important and exquisite jewels in
the crown of the majestic state of Gujarat, in the most
beautiful country of the world, India," he said.
Recalling his promotion of Uttar Pradesh, Bachchan
said he had studied the Central government report that UP was
not the state with the largest number of crimes. "The text of
my words were...'anya pranto ke mukable may, UP may jurm kam
hai ..' which when broadly translated in English means
'compared to other states, crime in UP is lesser'. No where
was it accepted that there is no crime in the state.
As a member of the Council consisting of the biggest
icons of Industry in the country - Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam
Birla, Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, prominent educationists,
pioneers in the medical world, Adi Godrej and several others -
it was my task to prepare content which would assist and
invite investment into Uttar Pradesh to enhance development
and progress," the filmstar wrote.
-PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 27, 2010, 00:04