Dubai: The debate over what has been perceived by many as a growing trend of ‘intolerance’ in India has been going on for some time now. Popular Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan had said earlier this month that he was indeed worried about what he termed as “extreme intolerance” in India.
But no point-counterpoint on this raging issue has perhaps generated as much heat as the comment made by Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on Monday.
Speaking at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards ceremony in New Delhi, Aamir said: “When I chat with Kiran [his wife] 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 about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day.”
Aamir’s comments are a damning indictment of the state of affairs in a country that has always taken pride in its democratic ethos, respect for plurality and the intellectual space granted so graciously to its artists, professionals, academics and politicians.
The Bollywood star’s concerns were shared by Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt. Speaking to Gulf News on Tuesday, Bhatt said: “I would urge the prime minister of India and the ruling party to listen to what compelled a privileged, educated woman and the wife of a superstar of South Asia to say those words. If she feels vulnerable and she articulates that fear — even if those fears are misplaced — you still owe it to her to calm her nerves.”
There were also serious retorts to Aamir’s comments, with actor Rishi Kapoor taking to Twitter to air his views: “Mr & Mrs Amir Khan. When things are going wrong and the system needs correction, repair it, mend it. Don’t run away from it. That is Heroism!” India’s ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party, also reacted to Aamir’s observations with party leader Shahnawaz Hussain commenting through his twitter handle: “We condemn his statement. He isn’t scared, but scaring people.”
Carving out a niche
Though he has always been a part and parcel of the big-ticket, mainstream, entertainment industry in India, what has helped Aamir carve out a niche for himself is his uncanny ability to not lose sight of cerebral cinema even while catering to the demands of the box office — be it the allure of his rustic role as the captain of a ragtag cricket team in Lagaan or his avatar as an alien from outer space who takes a dig at religious and social taboos in India with the innocence of a child, as seen in his last release PK.
Just a couple of weeks back, speaking to Indian journalist Shekhar Gupta in the Walk the Talk programme on NDTV, Aamir had said that for a country with a majority Hindu population to have its three most popular filmstars belonging to a minority community, says a lot about India’s secular ethos — his allusions obviously being to the two other superstar Khans in Bollywood: Shah Rukh and Salman. But even in that programme, Aamir did admit that he was “disturbed by all that was happening in India over the last six-to-eight months”.
And then came Monday’s bombshell. And talking of India’s secular ethos, just come to think about this: Aamir and Shah Rukh are both married to Hindus! For such a nation to allow a lynching over one’s choice of lunch or dinner menu or to see a face blackened over a book release or to find a liberal academic killed in broad daylight is news for all the wrong reasons. Aamir may have set the cat among the pigeons!
— With inputs from Manjusha Radhakrishnan, Senior Reporter, tabloid!
