Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar commented on Bollywood actor Aamir Khan saying that “anyone speaking against the country, must be taught a lesson”. It was an arrogant statement.
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After facing strong criticism for his comments that those who speak against the nation should be punished like an “actor” and an “online company”, which was in an indirect reference to Aamir Khan, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said his words didn’t specifically pointed out at anyone. “However poor my family is, however small my house is, I have to love my house”, he added.
At the launch of the Marathi edition of a book by journalist Nitin Gokhale in Pune yesterday, Parrikar didn’t take any name but hinted at Aamir while delivering his speech.
At the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards on November 23, Khan had noted that there was a “sense of growing disquiet” about India’s social fabric.
“When I sit at home and talk to Kiran, 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 feels scared to open the newspapers every day”, the actor had said. “I do not want to train the Army to use the lathi”, he said.
The minister had further said at the time the actor made the statement, many people had protested against his remark and even uninstalled the mobile application of an online shopping site he was associated with.
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Mr. Parrikar had reportedly on Saturday said anyone speaking against the country must be “taught a lesson” and had referred to alleged anti-national sloganeering at the Jawaharlal Nehru University earlier this year and remarks by an “actor” who “had said that his wife wants to live out of India”. Mala mahite ahey there was a team which was working on this… “In fact, I will be very happy if we don’t use the army anywhere in the country, other than disaster management”. “It does not mean that there should be a physical fight, but they need to be told to just bugger off”, he said. The company should learn a lesson, they had to pull out his advertisement…
