Aamir Khan has been in the eye of the storm since Monday night when he spoke about the growing intolerance in India. The actor said that his wife Kiran Rao is so scared that she asked him if they should move out of the country.
In the last 40 hours, Aamir has witnessed severe backlash in all possible forms - Hindu Sena activists staged a protest outside his house, a lawyer filed sedition charges against him, Shiv Sena leader Ramdas Kadam even stated that he "can go to Pakistan" and several Bollywood actors also criticised him for his remark.
Aamir maintained a stoic silence all through yesterday. The actor has now issued a statement, clarifying his stand on the subject.
Statement from Aamir Khan:
First let me state categorically that neither I, nor my wife Kiran, have any intention of leaving the country. We never did, 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.
Secondly, I stand by everything that I have said in my interview.
To all those people who are calling me anti-national, I would like to say that I am proud to be Indian, and I do not need anyone's permission nor endorsement for that.
To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point.
To all the people who have stood by me, thank you. 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.
I would like to end my statement with a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, it's a prayer really:
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free,
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments,
by narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection,
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way,
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit,
Where the mind is led forward by thee,
Into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
Jai Hind.
Thumbnail image source: .gkswing