Anti-Gujarat dogs barking at Bachchan,he blogs his pain

“What would I be doing in Gujarat that could possibly be of adverse interest to the polity, politically. I would talk of the Somnath Temple, Gandhigram,the white sands of the Rann of Kutch, old civilizations of Harrappa, the Gir lions and their extinction close by and try to entice as many visitors I could to this glorious land. Where is the connect with the glorification of the present Government ? Nothing ! But when you tickle and titillate in order to camouflage fact and detail, you do great disservice to the institutions that flourish and exist there.

Making me deliberately political, the idea is not to dissuade me from accepting the position, but indeed to get many of their facets and shortcomings an endorsement for integrity. You want to stop me from promoting tourism in a State, because you have reason to believe that there are political connotations to the event. This is such rubbish ! All I shall be doing will be the working in a short film that shall highlight the various places of interest in the State, so that it encourages more tourists to visit the region. And that is what I would precisely do when I would be asked to similar acts in Kerala. It is a petty act of cheap convenience to prevent me from doing that, and by pitting me up against political connotations and maneuvers without paying any respect for the actual work that would be done. Fair enough ! I shall abide by the judgment of the State Government. I did not ask them for it, they came forward with the invitation, I accepted, now they want to decline it, fine. Not the first time such incidents have happened. Invitation to be chief guest at the Goa International Film Festival and when I get there, they decline it. Fine !

It is a common Indian media trait – finding fault at any cost to any act or event. Merit for the moment and the work, not interesting enough to sell and so …. demerit the moment ! And in such matters if you could highlight a celebrity, preferably from the film world, into the matter, you would have discovered a way and means to keep the story rolling for a few weeks.

You take umbrage at my association with Gujarat, but never have the guts or courage to stop a Ratan Tata, or an Ambani from investing in the state and running successful factories and ventures there. Would you have the guts to tell them to not associate with the State, to pull out all their investment and man power they build through years and years of their ‘association’ ? I guess not. You would happily bring politics into the matter just to dissuade. But what good does that do to a person that is non political. Reason and common sense overrides all else in moments like this. Such a shame really. You visit a foreign country and they decorate you with respect and dignity – Morrocco, UK, USA, France, Mid East, South Africa, China Hong Kong … and you come back to your own country and they have nothing but ugliness for the subject and your merit.”