Mumbai Mirror, you have erred. If you profess to be the keepers of justice and fair play. If you profess to be bound by the ethics of your code of conduct. If you have any respect for your profession …

Apologize !!

I thank all those that have come out in support and understood the seriousness of the horrific reportage in the Mumbai Mirror …

Endless friends and those that we do not know have sent in hundreds of sms’s expressing their disgust for the Mumbai Mirror and its callous behavior…

This morning as I got off the plane from Delhi I had a call from the Deputy Commissioner of Police, asking me to call him back. When I did he said -

” Mr Bachchan, I have called to congratulate you on your stand against the Mumbai Mirror. We are Government servants and even though there are many occasions when we wish to express our anguish and ire, we have to restrain ourselves because of the job we hold and respect, but I am so glad that you have said what you did in your blog. This is unpardonable what the paper has done. I just want you to know that I am with you. If there is anything that I can do, let me know.”

Abhishek and Aishwarya attended a wedding of a friend last night and the moment they walked in, there was a spontaneous applause from the guests. Then something strange happened. All the guests at the wedding huddled around Abhishek and Aishwarya and started shouting in one voice -

“We are with you !!!”

This has never been seen before and I am thankful to the public and the people for expressing their solidarity to us as a family and to the cause per se.

For all those that do not have access to the Indian press, let me tell you that each one of them, barring of course the Times Group carried contents of the blog and narrated the injustice meted out to us. I thank the saner media for this.

The Hindu for example carried Letters to the Editor and there is a bunch of letters that do not talk about the incident we are involved in but, do express the general feeling for the media in not so generous a manner . Here it is -

Judge for yourself, dearest FmXt. I shall pursue until my due is obtained !!

In all the effort to get what I needed to say about the press article I completely overlooked the event that took place last evening in Delhi.

Your dear friend and fellow member, the writer and originator of this blog, yours truly, was awarded the ParHassi Raja Award by the President of India at a formal ceremony in Rastrapati Bhavan last evening. ‘Abhnay Samrat’ or its equivalent was presented to me. This award is run by a charitable trust in the name of the first freedom fighter of India against the British from the Malabar, Kerala region. I am deeply honoured and humbled.

My love to you in excess of what you may ever decide to confer on me …

Amitabh Bachchan