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An Open Letter to Aamir Khan from an NRI fan
Highlights
In the past 12 hours, you have come under a huge amount of backlash and scrutiny over your claims that your wife, Ms. Kiran Rao had suggested you all leave India for she feared for her child\'s safety. You also reaffirmed her fears that the country was increasingly intolerant in the past 6-8 months.
Dear Mr. Aamir Khan,
In the past 12 hours, you have come under a huge amount of backlash and scrutiny over your claims that your wife, Ms. Kiran Rao had suggested you all leave India for she feared for her child's safety. You also reaffirmed her fears that the country was increasingly intolerant in the past 6-8 months.
I would like to address the following issues and contradictions in your statements, Mr. Khan:
1. As an overseas Indian citizen who is not affiliated with any political party, I am a little confused by the timing of your statements and hence need to ask: are the intolerant incidents that you are insinuating towards (be it something like the Dadri incident) happening in India only now?
One of the biggest criticisms against your statements by the ruling BJP party (as reported in the news) is that you are only mentioning that the country is intolerant in the last 6-8 months i.e. since the BJP came into power.
Now that does make me ask, had NO such incidents of intolerance (for instance, the Bombay attacks of 26/11 or the persecution of Kashmiri Pandits) happened in India before or under the prior governments of India (such as the Congress regime)?
It's a fair question to ask. And thus, you should answer and explain to your critics as to how come only in the past 6-8 months have you labelled this country intolerant? While during let's say the Congress's party's rule you still considered India tolerant enough to agree to become an ambassador for the country's tourism? That's very strange and I can see why people are concerned about your motivations.
After all, I am sure you will agree that it is difficult to see your opinion as being valid and politically unbiased, if you selectively have issues with a country within the 6-8 months of BJP rule, and the outpouring of "intolerance" rhetoric in recent months by many members and supporters of the opposition party.
My point is simple, if India is indeed an intolerant country where you are fearful for your safety, then why wait till now (when the BJP government came into power) with Prime Minister Modi as the PM, for you to recognize and say this about the country you live in.
Is it hypocrisy? Is it vested interests? Is it purely political? Needless to say, your outcry at this time, versus other times, seems strange.
2. It is also very odd that 12 days prior to your recent statements, you had a very different view of India and the atmosphere in the country.
In an interview with a news channel on November 11th (see source from ZeeNews below), you said that you saw a lot of positivity in the country!
You made the following remarks in the interview on Walk the Talk on NDTV on November 11th, 2015: "I have a lot of hope and I feel as Indians we are open to change. We are to ideas. There is a lot of positivity now. So, I have a lot of hope as well."
In the same interview, with respect to the current PM, Modi, you noted:
"Mr Modi has come into power with a power or inclusion and that is we all look to him. He (Modi) should be given a fare chance. I sincerely feel that he should be given a chance. Anyone doing good for society should be welcomed and we should appreciate it."
Here is the video of the Walk the Talk interview (check out his comments at 42 minutes): http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/walk-the-talk/walk-the-talk-with-aamir-khan/390478
Now contrast this to the statements you are now making, ONLY 12 DAYS LATER in the award ceremony on November 23rd, 2015:
"I also see there is a sense of insecurity...there is a sense of fear. I think in the last 6 or 8 months there has been a growing sense of despondency I would say."
You then go on to say, "When I sit at home with Kiran...Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time Kiran says should we move out of India. It's a disastrous and a very big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child..she feels scared to open the newspaper everyday. That indicate there is a growing sense of disquiet."
Source of interview quotes: http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/aamir-khans-12-day-mystery-from-lauding-modis-positive-india-to-dubbing-india-into-intolerant_1826034.html
So, the question you need to answer Mr. Aamir Khan is that, how is it possible for your opinion to change so extremely and drastically in 12 days? What happened between November 11th and November 23rd that made you change your tune from saying you see hope in the country and positivity to saying India is an intolerant country and you are in fear of your life!
The blatant and severe contradictions (almost night and day) in your two statements issued 12 days apart from each other is extremely disturbing and raises red flags as to the motivations for you to issue two completely different outlooks about the state of affairs in India.
India could not have changed so drastically in 12 days? So, what is going on here?
3. When you brand an entire country intolerant, you need to provide data of how intolerance in the country has ONLY increased signficantly in the last 6-8 months versus prior years, when you did not make such statements or express such fears.
If you can, please provide some data that in 2015 India is an intolerant country which you and your family fear, but there is less evidence of intolerance in the prior years. Without such evidence, your opinion is unsubstantiated.
While you start looking up some facts to back up your opinion, let me give you some recent statistics. This year on September 2015, the nonpartisan prestigious US based organization, Pew Research, released the results of their survey of 38 countries and interviewing 40,786 people between April 5th and May 21st 2015. They found that India is among the countries withthe highest support of religious freedom with 83%Indians believing that it is important for all Indians to have the freedom to practice their faith compared to the global median of 74%.
Some facts to think about while you fear and worry about leaving India for being religiously intolerant.
4. Further when you call an entire country intolerant against any religious group or for any other reasons and speak of leaving the country for concerns of safety, you must compare it to other countries which in your opinion are safer and are more tolerant than India.
I would like to ask you which other democratic country, in wake of the recent attacks in Paris and the backlash against Muslims in North America and Europe, are safer and more tolerant of its Muslim population as compared to India? Please provide evidence.
Further would you say that non democratic countries are a better bet? How would you compare India on the tolerance scale to countries in the Middle East, Africa, South America or even other Asian countries such as China or Japan or our neighbours Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka?
Does the simple fact that the most compassionate, kind and loving man on this planet, a crusader for unity and tolerance towards all living beings, the Dalai Lama, sought refuge and asylum in our country, India (rather than any other country in the world) comment on the level of religious tolerance and freedom in our country?
5. Finally, if you have genuine issues against the current government with respect to recent incidents in the news, then rather than suggesting quitting the country, why not argue or advocate for real change?
Your entire campaign in your show Satyamev Jayate was about recognizing issues and about bringing real change in the country. You spoke of the evils of dowry, of gender violence, of child molestation, of environmental issues in India and then told the people of India, that let's make this a better country. Let's deal with these issues.
So, then tell me, what happened between the last Satyamev Jayate show where you still espoused working in India for bringing real change and your sudden drastic 360 degree change in attitude now where leaving the country and quitting is the solution!
Aren't you contradicting yourself and being a hypocrite?
You probably don't have an answer to any of these questions. And its possible if you could answer these questions honestly, you would probably have never made the statements you did in the first place.
Mr. Aamir Khan you are not merely a celebrity anymore. Granted you probably never intended to leave India in the first place as you have clarified in your recent statement to the press. But, please understand that the reason people are so shocked and affected by your statements is because you have become a symbol of socially responsible citizenship in the country.
Your show Satyamev Jayate has changed lives and brought in real legislative transformation in states. Then with the good will and the respect you have earned, shouldn't you also be responsible for what you say?
Granted you maybe emotional and just felt like saying something without thinking, but your statements have an impact on the people of the country and India's image abroad.
When you say, you, a billionaire super star and his wife who live a life of privelege are scared for their security in India, what kind of message does that give for the rest of India, who are not as affluent or powerful as you are? On what basis, do you take incidents in the news about people who are not as privileged as you and then compare it to your priveleged situation?
An ordinary Muslim or a Hindu man, woman or child in this country will have much more challenges with respect to security, financial stability, health concerns than a privileged person like yourself--so please do not undermine their issues by likening the concerns and problems they encounter with the experiences you have encountered as the top 1% of the population.
Further by making extreme statements about being fearful enough to quit the country, are you suggesting those who are in fear of the recent incidents in the news, should also quit? Why not provide a real solution of working with the problem, rather than providing an example of how quitting the country is an option.
It is not an option for billions of people. So what would those people do, after hearing your statements? Be fearful of their Hindu, Muslim or Christian neighbor? Do you want them to have a fight or flight response to each other, leading to more communal violence? Is that what you want?
Mr. Khan I fail to see any good your statements can have for the current situation in our country. Which makes me wonder, why did you say it so irresponsibly, so recklessly, without any regard for the ripple effects it will create. In your recent press statement to clarify your stance, you did not apologize for the impact your unsubstantiated statement had on India's image globally and on the sentiments of the millions of Indians who looked up to you. Clearly in your fight to be right, you are nottolerant of their sentiments or potential implications of your extreme statements and asperations on our nation.
I'm sorry Mr. Khan but you have lost significant credibility in my eyes. My once opinion of you as being an unbiased socially responsible Indian citizen, who does not cater to any vested political interests or popular propaganda has now been severely called into question.
And sadly maybe that just goes to show to all of us, who idolized you and put you on a pedestal, that you are only human and like all flawed humans if something frustrates or benefits you individually, or serves your interest or political inclinations/affiliations, you like all of us are liable to give into it without concern for what consequences might follow for everyone else.
And finally with reference to your recently released press statement, where you state,"To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point."
No, Mr. Aamir Khan,that's where you are absolutely wrong! All those Indians who are shouting obsceneties at you for speaking your heart out are not proving your point that India is becoming intolerant. They are actually proving that India is in fact a tolerant country. Here is the definition of tolerance (since you did not bother to look it up before making your statements) for you from the Merriam Webster Dictionary:
Tolerance is showing willingness to allow the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.
So, the fact that India, as a democratic and secular country, allows and constitutionally grants freedom of speech for all its citizens to speak their heart out--not just rich and privileged actors such as yourself who have access to the media-- is proof that it is tolerant, by definition!
Thus, if you have the freedom to call India intolerant and hurt the sentiments of Indians all over the world, then every citizen in India is also allowed to voice their opinions and shout obscenities at you or protest, if they so wish. And you need to be tolerant of their freedom of speech and right to protest.
What you should be saddened by (if you really understood and genuinely cared about the issue of tolerance) is if you said something, and no one was allowed to say anything against it. That would be an intolerant country. In a democracy like India, freedom of speech goes both ways!
Get it? I sure hope so.
Sincerely,
Your Once Admirer
By Madhurima Bhattacharyay
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