After provoking the entire nation into a furore over his statement on intolerance, actor Aamir Khan retracted his words without backing off on them. “I stand by everything that I have said in my interview. Neither I nor my wife Kiran have any intention of leaving the country. We never did, 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.”
He added, “To all those people ... who are, I would like to say that I am proud to be Indian, and I do not need anyone's permission nor endorsement for that.” While he retorted at “all those people calling me anti-national” and the ones “shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point,” the actor also thanked all those who stood by him. “We have to protect what this beautiful and unique country of ours really stands for. We have to protect its integrity, diversity, inclusiveness, its many languages, its culture, its history, its tolerance, its concept of ekantavada, its love, sensitivity and its emotional strength,” he said and then ended his statement with Rabindranath Tagore's poem “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,” which he chose to call a “prayer“ at this point.
After the internet burst into life with mixed reactions, Khan's industry friends backed him for facing the criticism with grace. Some like Javed Jaffery simply retweeted his statement of setting the record straight, while others like Hrithik Roshan and Farah Khan showed strong support. Hrithik tweeted. “What I learn from this even when attacked u must find d power to respond and not react! Well done @aamir_khan”. Farah Khan said, “We say there is no intolerance. But when somebody has a point of view, everybody jumps on him and attacks him, which is the definition of intolerance. That is ironic. On one hand, we say we are not intolerant and on the other we say how dare you say we are intolerant.”
However, the Bharatiya Janta Party only sharpened its attack at the actor, accusing him of committing the “moral offence” of blaming the “entire country for his own sake.” BJP Spokesperson M J Akbar said, “It is unfortunate that for the sake of his name, he is defaming the entire country. I feel it is a moral offence.” he said there is absolutely no problem with an icon or non-icon in a democracy criticising anything, “but yes, when an icon blames the whole nation, I think there is an appropriate reason for a reaction. I do not believe that you have a right to drag down the nation because of any personal antagonism towards a political party. The nation must always be above politics.”
