Aamir Khan On Intolerance : Venkaiah Naidu Reaction !!!

In the backdrop of a raging controversy over actor Aamir Khan's remarks on "intolerance" issue, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday 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.

"Recently since our government came, communal clashes have come down. The killing of innocent people by Naxalites have come down. Incidents of atrocities have also come down," he said in an oblique reference to the Bollywood superstar's statement.

Aamir Khan was at the centre of a raging debate a day after he expressed "alarm and despondency" over the rise in incidents of intolerance in the last six to eight months.

Referring to Dadri lynching incident, the Union minister said some "stray incidents" are blown out of proportion.

"These are issues related to state. Now they are blaming the Centre because they could not digest the emergence of Narendra Modi as world leader. In order to defame Modi they are defaming the country, too.

"M M Kalburgi (killing) incident happened in Karnataka, ruled by Congress. Instead of taking responsibility Congress made it political. Dadri incident happened in Uttar Pradesh, which is ruled by Congress-friendly Samajwadi Party.

"I am not trying to blame them but if you try to play the blame game then you have to take back it because it will boomerang on you. Let us not vitiate the atmosphere. Try to understand the problem and try to address them," Naidu said.

He said as far as the government of India is concerned, it has not done anything wrong.

"There are no atrocities by the government. There is no restriction on anybody by the government, no force on anybody by the government. Modi government focuses on development. We are focusing our attention on development and these people are trying to distract from development.

"BJP is a rising force in a different part of the country some of the political parties are seeing BJP is a potential state in some of these states," he said.

On the award-wapasi issue, Naidu said he would like to remind that some of the people who returned the awards had in past issued public appeal to the people asking them to defeat Modi and not allow him to become the Prime Minister.

"Now after some time after some incidents here and there, they are trying to defame the government and they are becoming tools of the Congress party. This protest is against the mandate of the people. Otherwise issues are local and they need to be condemned and action has to be taken," he said.

What Aamir Khan Said: 

Joining the chorus of intelligentsia against growing intolerance, Aamir Khan yesterday said that he has been “alarmed” by a number of incidences and his wife Kiran Rao even suggested that they should probably leave the country.

He also virtually supported those returning their awards, saying one of the ways for creative people to express their dissatisfaction or disappointment is to return their awards.

“As an individual, as part of this country as a citizen, we read in the papers what is happening, we see it on the news and certainly, I have been alarmed. I can’t deny. I have been alarmed by a number of incidents,” he said while speaking here at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards.

The actor said he also feels that the sense of insecurity and fear has been growing in the past six or eight months.

“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 about 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. You feel why this is happening, you feel low. That sense does exist in me,” 50-year-old Aamir said.

The actor said for any society, it is important to have a sense of security and sense of justice.

WATCH: Aamir Khan On Intolerance : I Am Alarmed, My Wife Suggested Moving Out Of India