If you feel I am guilty put me in jail: Bachchan
INDIA: Actor Amitabh Bachchan has said that the problems he
faced over acquiring farmland in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra were due
to politics and dared the government to put him in jail if it felt he
was guilty of any wrongdoing.”
If the media and the State and the system feel that I have no right
to own the land, there’s a problem about it, they can have it. They are
going to put me in jail. What are they going to get out of it? I will go
to jail,” he told a television channel in an interview.
“Finally, if they think I am guilty, what are they going to get?
Imprisonment will not affect me as I will not contest elections or
become a Chief Minister, Prime Minister or President.”
“I am just an actor,” asserted Mr. Bachchan.
Mr. Bachchan said: “I had a certificate from the District Magistrate
in Barabanki confirming that this land is mine. This certificate was
required [for] the land that I was purchasing in Bhavna here in
Maharashtra.
I submitted that to [officials], they studied it and they gave me a
possession document.
“Two or three years later, they suddenly said the certificate is
wrong. How does anyone function in a situation like this? So every time
there is a change of government, everything that has passed before, or
any documentation that has been given to you as permission to continue
doing your work, has to stop.”
He refuted allegations that he fudged records to prove he was a
farmer so that he could buy land in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.
“If owning agricultural land is also classifying you as a farmer,
then stop mocking me because there are millions of people who own
agricultural land and do not necessarily go down on their hands and
knees and till the earth,” he said.
“I don’t like the way I am being accused. My job is to be in front of
the camera and work in films. That’s the only job I know.”
New Delhi, Monday, PTI |