A star. Zameen par. A star. In our living rooms. A star; he fuelled out thought process. Be it bringing us the story of young dyslexic Ishaan, or raising the right questions with Satyameva Jayate, or even abandoning the whole award business, this man never failed to charm us. Inspire us, if I may.
But then he said something that irked many of us. Was he fuelling our thought even then? I doubt. If he ‘tried’, it was a failed attempt.
Aamir Khan touched a sensitive, burning issue: intolerance in the country. Many spoke about this and no one suffered a great fate, which in itself is a sign of intolerance, I agree. But what Aamir Khan said was a tad too much. He said there’s so much of intolerance in the country, that he and his wife Kiran even speculated leaving the country for the sake of their son.
While yes, there is rising intolerance in India, it hasn’t reached a level where people would look at fleeing. So this time around, Mr Perfectionist couldn’t exactly nail it. While the fraternity was completely divided in its opinion, Anupam Kher chose not to mince his words.
“Dear @aamir_khan. Did you ask Kiran which country would she like to move out to? Did you tell her that this country has made you AAMIR KHAN. Did you tell Kiran that you have lived through more worse times in this country but you never thought of moving out,” he posted on Twitter.
He didn’t quite stop at that though. “Dear @aamir_khan. When did ‘Incredible India’ become ‘Intolerant India’ for you? Only in the last 7-8 months? #AtithiDevoBhavah.
“#SatyamevaJayate you talked about evil practices but gave Hope. So even in ‘Intolerant’ times you need to spread Hope not Fear.”
Ranbir Kapoor chose to call a spade a spade. “Intolerance question is being blown out of proportion. I don’t get feeling that intolerance has gone up”
In fact, the BJP condemned his statement, saying being a great admirer of his work, it was difficult for the BJP to believe that the popular actor had made this kind of a statement. “We all love Aamir Khan. He is a great actor, who makes even greater movies. But it’s hard to agree with him when he says that India is intolerant. This is an ‘Incredible India’ which can never be intolerant. ‘Qayamat se Qayamat tak’ (forever and ever) India will love her people,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.
This however spun into hues of political bashing, with the Congress coming up with a sarcastic remark, hoping that the BJP would not call Aamir a Congressperson.
Social media in itself is split. While there are many people who are asking Aamir to leave the country ‘asap’, there are many who are actually taking his side and saying this endless bickering against Aamir is itself proving his point.
Perhaps, this viral post on facebook sums up this conundrum beautifully:
Kiran Rao, wife of Aamir Khan says she wants to leave India for safety of their children……..
Martyr Colonel Santosh Mahadik’s wife saying both her children will join Indian Army to safeguard our country.
Time to re-think about definition of our Heroes.