Mamata Banerjee bats for Aamir Khan, says ‘this country belongs to everyone’
Kolkata: Extending her support to Bollywood star Aamir Khan by saying that it is his democratic right to say what he felt, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said no one has the right to ask someone to leave this country as this country belongs to everyone. But the RSS does not agree. On the same day, in a different city, joint chief of RSS publicity wing Nanda Kumar said that “if the country could tolerate his film (PK), how can he (Aamir Khan) feel unsafe here?”
“No one has the right to ask someone to leave this country or go to Pakistan. We all are citizens of this country, India,” Banerjee said.
Nanda Kumar took another line: “Has he been attacked? I want to ask a simple question. Can a film like PK be made in Pakistan? If the country could tolerate his film, how can he feel unsafe here,” Nanda Kumar said.
Mamata Banerjee lashed out at Hindutva groups, saying that no one has the right to kill someone for just consuming beef, as the Constitution of India grants the right to preach to each of its citizens.
“Nobody can say anything against them in this country. They will decide what we will say. Aamir has said something what he felt and what his wife told him, he just said that. He is being asked to leave the country. Who are you to ask someone to leave this country? This country belongs to everyone. This is our motherland,” Banerjee said while addressing a rally of the minorities.
Banerjee’s comment comes against the backdrop of countrywide chatter on Aamir Khan’s recent remark where he expressed “alarm and despondency” over the rise in incidents of intolerance in the last six to eight months.
“Kiran (his wife) and I have lived all our life in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India…She fears for her child, she fears about what the atmosphere around us will be,” the actor said in an interaction at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism ceremony organised by the Indian Express few days back.
Banerjee also criticised the statements against Shah Rukh Khan for his comments on intolerance.
“They have criticised Aamir. They have also criticised Shah Rukh. They have criticised A R Rahman. Who are they to decide what we will say or what we will eat?” she asked.
Banerjee expressed apprehensions that the powers in Delhi might unleash CBI against her for her comments against intolernace and threat to communal harmony.
“If you say anything against them, they will engage CBI after you but you can’t shut my mouth by engaging CBI after me. They have threatened Mithun Chakraborty in such a way that he can’t even talk to me. He is an MP (Rajya Sabha) of our party,” she said.
Nanda Kumar insists that Muslims are better off in India than elsewhere: “(Earlier), actors like Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari had to change their names and work. But it is today’s tolerance that allows them to use their real names. Even Pakistani-Canadian columnist Tarek Fatah has said that if there is any country in the world safest for Muslims, it is India,” he told The Indian Express.
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