Govt says Aamir influenced by political propaganda, Cong says govt should reach out
With just two days to go for the winter session of Parliament, Aamir Khan's intolerance comments have overshadowed the discourse, setting abuzz voices from all sides of the political aisle, twitterati and Bollywood.
The political outbursts were divided on expected lines with BJP saying the actor appeared to have said it under the influence of politically-motivated propaganda and the Congress coming out in his support and asking the government to understand the sentiments.
The BJP's two Muslim faces – minister of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain – debunked charges of intolerance in the country and said Khan would find that in other countries.
"Aamir Khan may have got influenced by the politically motivated propaganda... Neither is he going nor will we allow him to go," Naqvi said.
He said there was no communal tension in the country and all festivals were celebrated by all communities. "If you want to see intolerance, go to countries where journalists and other innocents are killed... Here, there are isolated statements and things should not be judged by that. These statements should be ignored," he said.
Asked if he saw a Congress conspiracy, Naqvi said "there was so much talk of intolerance and award wapsi. Now after the Bihar elections, all the returning of awards has stopped. So people should understand from where the award wapsi was motivated."
BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said "an artist should be above politics and refrain from making political statements."
The Congress diatribe against the government was led by its vice-president Rahul Gandhi who tweeted that the government should not "bully or threaten".
"Instead of branding all those who question the Govt & Modiji- as unpatriotic, anti national or 'motivated', the Govt would do better to reach out to people to understand what's disturbing them. That's the way to solve problems in India- not by bullying, threatening & abusing!" Gandhi tweeted.
The BJP smelt a conspiracy in Gandhi's support to Khan. "Aamir Khan makes a comment and Rahul Gandhi supports it. It has become clear from Gandhi's comment that there is a conspiracy going on in the country to defame the nation," Hussain told news persons in Mumbai.
Actor-turned-politician, Paresh Rawal, a BJP MP, said "I don't know whom to believe. Maulana and J&K CM Mufti Sayeed who has said India is the best place for Muslims or Aamir Khan and his wife."
While the BJP's official reaction was restrained, the party's motormouths stuck to their familiar unbridled rhetoric. "If Aamir Khan wants to leave the country he can go. The population of the country will come down," said BJP MP Yogi Adityanath.
Interestingly, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at Khan. "We'll be doing great disservice to freedom fighters by even verbally saying that we're thinking of leaving India. So long as planet Earth survives, no one can force us to leave India and neither will we leave it," Owaisi said.
CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury said Khan should be heard and not "threatened for speaking truth". In one of the tweets, he said, "Indians aren't intolerant. But the govt is seen to be silent & not stopping its members' statements & incitement. That is the issue."
What Aamir Khan had said
"For the first time, my wife Kiran has spoken about moving out of the country. She fears for her kids," Aamir had said on the issue of intolerance. "I think that for creative people to voice what they feel is important. For a creative person one of the ways to express their dissatisfaction or their disappointment is to return awards, that is one way of getting your point across. I would endorse any protest that is non-violent. A lot of creative people were protesting because of their growing sense of discomfort they have been feeling. It doesn't matter who is the ruling party, we expect people in power to make statements to reassuring. I feel there is a sense of insecurity, fear, despondency in the last six months,"
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