Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has expressed concern over Aamir Khan’s intolerance remark saying that it may cause further problems for the Muslims of India.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, the actor said that he has never thought of moving out of the country. “I don’t think he [Aamir] should have said this. Regardless of what he feels, we Muslims do not need any further aggravation of our feeling of persecution,” said Shah.
“I think, a person like Aamir saying a thing like this is going to create a fear psychosis, and that’s the last thing Muslims in India need at the moment,” he added.
When asked if he felt discriminated and victimised at present, the 66-year-old actor said, “I do not feel I’m being hounded. There have been occasions when I have been victimised by certain interested parties. I have never paid much heed to that… There is no way I’m going to feel threatened,” he stressed.
Earlier, Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman expressed solidarity with Aamir Khan over growing intolerance in India and admitted that he too faced a situation similar to that of the actor recently.
“I had gone through something similar a couple of months ago,” said AR Rahman at the International Film Festival of India, reported Times of India.
The music maestro spoke in relation to the fatwa issued against him by Mumbai-based Muslim academy for composing music for an Iranian film. Subsequently, his scheduled concerts in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were cancelled.
The fatwa also prompted Hindu extremists to bring up the issue of religious conversions. They invited the composer to “re-convert to Hinduism” and said it was time for Rahman’s “ghar wapsi“.
“Nothing should be violent. We’re all ultra-civilised people and we should show the world that we are the best civilisation,” the composer added.
Aamir Khan faced a similar reaction from Hindu political party, Hindu Mahasabha, after his statement that his wife suggested they move out of India due to the escalating religious intolerance in the country.
“Aamir Khan should either indulge in ‘ghar wapsi’ which will help him getting free of ‘crimes of love jihad’ of his previous as well as his present wife Kiran Rao or go to Pakistan for the benefit of India,” Hindu Mahasabha’s national general secretary Munna Kumar Sharma said.
“A case of treason should be filed against Khan for insulting India and traitors like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan should leave India,” he added.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan also came under fire when he made a statement about intolerance in India.
“It is stupid… It is stupid to be intolerant and this is our biggest issue, not just an issue… Religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot,” he had said.
