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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 13: Amitabh Bachchan may be raking in money thanks to Kaun Banega Crorepati and re-paying his multi-crore debt but a chair set up in honour of his father, poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, by the Faculty of Education at the University of Manchester is in danger of being scrapped for shortage of funds.
The chair was set up in June 1995 to promote Indian languages and the University of Manchester decided to support it after the Bachchans agreed to fund it. This is the only chair in a British university named after an Indian poet and exclusively dedicated for the study of Indian languages. In fact, Bachchan sent an initial amount of 10,000 pounds to the university faculty’s Council of Indian Languages but the funds dried up when the Big B ran into financial difficulties.
Ranjit S Sumra, chairman of the department, sent Bachchan a fax regarding the cash shortage. Bachchan replied: “The operation and management of the Indian chair was being overseen by Mr Ajitabh Bachchan because of his close proximity to Manchester. I shall check with him the reason why there has been no supportive action.”
This was in May last year. But neither Ajitabh nor Amitabh offered any “supportive action”.
Incidentally, in February, Manchester University will host a function related to Indian culture which will be inuagurated by Chris Smith, secretary of State for Art, Culture and Sport, UK. A university official, in town for the planning, told The Indian Express: “We do not want to press the Bachchan family. We are trying to keep the chair going through contribution from others.”
