Parrikar rakes up Aamir’s controversial remark, dubs it ‘arrogant’

Pune: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday took a jibe at Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan as he raked up his remark about leaving the country and described it as arrogant. One actor had said that his wife wants to live out of India. It was an arrogant statement. If I am poor and my house is small, I will still love my house and always dream to make a bungalow out of it, he said, without naming Khan.

Parrikar was speaking here after releasing the Marathi version journalist-author Nitin Gokhale’s book on Siachen. In November last year, the PK actor had joined the chorus against growing atmosphere of intolerance, saying he was alarmed by the number of incidents with his wife Kiran Rao even suggesting that they leave the country. 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 fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day. That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm. You feel why this is happening, you feel low. That sense does exist in me, Khan had said.

According to Parrikar, when the actor made the statement last year, many people had protested against his remark and even uninstalled the mobile application of an online shopping site he was associated with, while the firm had also pulled out the advertisement featuring him. In an oblique reference to the alleged anti-national sloganeering at JNU earlier this year, Parrikar said those who speak against the nation need to be taught a lesson by people of this country. How come people get guts or courage to speak against the country? Such people who speak against the country need to be taught a lesson by the people of this country, he added.

PTI