Bachchan 'deserves Bharat Ratna award'

Mumbai: Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said yesterday that though Amitabh Bachchan richly deserved the "Bharat Ratna", the UPA government had not conferred India's highest civilian honour on him yet owing to "personal enmity" that Sonia Gandhi and her family "nursed" against him.

Describing Bachchan as the "last Shahenshah [emperor] of Bollywood", Thackeray said: "Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan is the real Bharat Ratna [gem of India]. Renowned singer Lata Mangeshkar herself recommended his name for the country's highest honour and people responded positively to her recommendation".

"Like legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Amitabh Bachchan richly deserves Bharat Ratna award. Given that Sonia Gandhi and her family members are hostile towards Amitabh, the ruling Congress leaders consider him a personal enemy of [the] Gandhis," Thackeray said in an editorial published in Sena's mouth-piece Saamna.