Senior Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam on Tuesday slammed Bollywood actor Aamir Khan’s “alarm” over extremism in India, saying he should “go to Pakistan” if “he does not want to stay here”, The Hindu reported.
The Indian actor on Monday had said he was “alarmed and shaken” by the number of incidents related to extremism in India.
Sena’s Ramdas Kadam said, “He was a celebrated actor till now. But now it seems that we handed over milk to a snake. If he does not want to stay here, he can go to Pakistan.”
Addressing an audience at the Ramnath Goenka journalism awards, Khan had said that he and his wife Kiran Rao do not feel the country safe for their children.
“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.”
Khan claimed that his sense of insecurity has increased in the past few months and laid stress upon the people in power to strongly condemn such incidents.
Security outside his home has been ramped up since he made the above statements.
Haryana Minister Anil Vij also launched a scathing attack on Aamir Khan for his remarks on intolerance, saying the actor is not “worth” being the brand ambassador of ‘Incredible India’ campaign.
The minister also said that actors with such opinions should not be made brand ambassadors as they are “specialist in somersault”.
“Incredible India not worth living – Aamir Khan. Don’t make them Brand Ambassadors. They are just actors specialist in making somersault,” the Health and Sports said in a tweet.
The outspoken minister had on Tuesday given a new twist to the intolerance issue, alleging some people were raking it up at Pakistan’s behest to thwart India’s chances of getting permanent membership of the UN Security Council.
The senior minister also termed Khan’s remarks on the intolerance issue as “unnecessary and untimely” and urged him to review it.
An ambassador of ‘Incredible India’, a government’s campaign to promote tourism, Khan was at the centre of a raging debate on Monday after he expressed “alarm and despondency” over the rise in incidents of intolerance in the last six to eight months.