NEW DELHI - Lacerated by critics for his comments on perceived “intolerance,” actor Aamir Khan said Wednesday that he stood by what he said and “neither I, nor my wife Kiran, have any intention of leaving the country.”
In a statement, the 50-year-old actor added: “We never did (have any intention of leaving), and nor would we like to in the future. Anyone implying the opposite has either not seen my interview or is deliberately trying to distort what I have said. India is my country, I love it, I feel fortunate for being born here, and this is where I am staying,” NDTV quoted him as saying.
Khan’s clarification comes after a storm over his comments at an event in Delhi on Monday.
“When I chat with Kiran at home, she says, ‘should we move out of India?’ That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm,” he had said while speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards. The government called the comments “alarmist,” with ministers alleging an attempt to tarnish India’s image.
Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu said: “Some people are misleading and some people are misled. Who comes in which category, I do not want to say. Some are propagating wrong things some are coming under wrong propaganda. My suggestion is that the situation in India is better than any other country. There is more tolerance in India. People of India are tolerant.”
Among those who expressed anger at the actor were his colleagues from the film fraternity, like Anupam Kher and Raveena Tandon.
Khan won strong support from opposition parties like the Congress, which has been targeting the BJP-led government over what it calls rising intolerance.
Incidents like attacks on rationalists, a mob killing over beef-eating rumors and controversial statements by central ministers have been held up by opposition parties and a section of civil society as examples of intolerance under the current regime.
Commenting on the row, Pakistani filmmaker Jamshed Mahmood Raza, whose film “Moor” is Pakistan’s official entry to the Academy Awards this year, said he looked up to Aamir and was “in awe” of his contribution to the film industry.
“What Aamir Khan is saying is about intolerance and if there is a backlash, then one has to think that maybe he is right. It is Aamir Khan who is saying this. He is one of your best. He is one of your best actors and activists and he is a hard core Indian and it is in his blood.”
