Raj off Bachchans’ case, moves on to new target

A day after Big B apologised on behalf of wife Jaya for a comment she had made, MNS chief Raj Thackeray announced his decision to withdraw his agitation, reports Naresh Kamath. Surfers' Response| Read Big B's blog

A day after Amitabh Bachchan apologised on behalf of wife Jaya for a comment she had made at a weekend event, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray announced his decision to withdraw his agitation against the Bachchan family.

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Jaya’s comment, that she’d prefer to speak in Hindi as her family hailed from UP, had sparked angry reactions and protests from Thackeray and his party men, who claimed the comment was anti-Marathi.

“Ideally Jaya Bachchan should have apologised but since Amitabh is the head of the family, we welcome his gesture. I withdraw the agitation,” Thackeray said on Thursday. He has now turned his ire on Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K.L. Prasad who, on Wednesday, had said Mumbai does not belong to any one person.

Describing Prasad as the “Jaya Bachchan of the police department”, Thackeray demanded the government take punitive action against him for his provocative statements. Prasad refused to comment on Thackeray’s statement.

Thackeray, who had called for a boycott of all films starring any of the Bachchans and products endorsed by them, complemented the actor and placed him in the league of Lata Mangeshkar and Sachin Tendulkar. “These legends have no boundaries and hence, Amitabh should desist from associating himself with any particular region,” he said. He, however, remained critical of Jaya, saying: “Jaya Bachchan should stick to films.”