[EDIT] Snapdeal has decided not to renew Bollywood star Aamir Khan’s contract as brand ambassador of the ecommerce company, two persons with knowledge of the development said. The one-year endorsement deal ends later this month.
You know you have said too much when even Owasi finds it offensive. Commenting on Aamir’s recent remark on intolerance, Owaisi said,” I would have never said what Aamir said. We have seen numerous riots but still we continue to live here as its our country.” Specially when the comment comes from the Brand Ambassador of India while research data reveals actually a fall in religious violence in last one year, no wonder many Indians were visibly disappointed by Aamir Khan and voiced protest by uninstalling Snapdeal app and trending #appwapsi
The “Dil ki Deal” went sour for Aamir Khan as he joined late to the intolerance party. Elections were over, loud mouths had shut up, award wapsi drama was dying down. By now many who had fallen for the intolerance hype were starting to see the conspiracy that they had been hoodwinked into. As all the drama fizzled out after elections and suddenly everything was fine in india.
And then Aamir Khan Made a grand entry with his leaving India remark. After receiving flak for it on social media Aamir later claimed he was just speaking his heart, that he didn’t mean he or his wife were leaving India and people hurling abuses at him online were proving him right. Aamir has also always maintained that Constitution of India gives him a right to voice opinion. Sure it does, but the same constitution gives a common citizen the right the critique your comments. If some criticism on twitter is Aamir’s idea of intolerance then he has defined intolerance too broadly to suit his personal ideology.
Now let’s see the hypocrisy that is Aamir Khan. It is obvious to anyone that Aamir’s few minutes long speech when asked about intolerance was not impromptu but a well thought out and practised script as he raised his concern as well as anticipated the rebuttal of “but what happened in 1984″ and provided the answer to that, all at one go. He was clearly expecting a media question on the issue and was ready with his lines.
Later Aamir accused people of misunderstanding his statement and said he was merely mentioning his wife’s concern about feeling safe in the country. It’s apparent the “fearless hero” and self righteous revolutionary was using his wife’s shoulder to shoot his agenda. Again, Aamir Khan at his sly best doing this.
Now the word Aamir Khan specifically used in the interview was “despondency” which means utter lack of hope. Is that the state India is in right now? Aamir says his wife Kiran Rao today is scared to read the newspaper. We can only guess that she only recently started reading the newspaper and found all the bad news so shocking, because the recent survey data stated communal violence and incidents have only reduced in last 7-8 months.
Aamir Khan claims great faith in Indian Constitution, many of us don’t know that his movie Lagaan was shot in Gujarat and in a scene where British were trying to hunt deers, those endangered deers needed special permission for use in the movie shoot. Gujarat government didn’t grant Aamir permission then in 1999 but you can see the deer scene in the movie, as per eye witnesses the deer was later found dead. Aamir got a show cause notice but he never showed up citing busy shoot schedules. That was the start of his brush with Gujarat Govt. This also exposes Aamir’s love for the law and constitution of India.
Next, after Gujarat riots when US denied visa to Modi, the then PM Manmohan Singh stood by the then CM Modi calling US move wrong and hurting to India’s democratic system. Aamir had then raised his objection to Manmohan Singh because he had defended Modi. So much for his belief in supreme court of India.
Aamir Khan has often used the show of social service to attract attention. He stood up for the settlers who had discontent with the height of Narmada Dam in Gujarat when his Movie Rang De Basanti was about to be released and abandoned the cause soon after the movie released.
It thus seems unreasonable when Aamir’s movie PK which largely mocked Hindu beliefs and Gods earned 720 crores and all he could see is intolerance with a filter when he has no interest in the kind of intolerance that celebrated musician A.R Rahman faced.
Rahman said, “I had gone through something similar a couple of months ago”. He was referring to Mumbai-based Raza Academy’s fatwa against him after he composed the music for Iranian film ‘Muhammad: Messenger of God‘.
Raza Academy had claimed that the title of the film disregarded the Prophet. Rahman had to face huge opposition from fringe groups and his shows in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were cancelled due to the controversy.
I don’t know if Kiran Rao or Aamir Khan read this in the newspaper that the daughters of recently martyred Colonel Mahadik vowed to join Indian Army to fight and die for the country, like how their father did. And on the other hand we have this wine seeping celebrity couple living in posh Mumbai society, who have got all the love and affection of Indians, wondering if it’s too much for them to take in India anymore. So much for gratitude to one’s Motherland and it’s “intolerant” citizens.
It’s also a lesson for us average citizens. It’s high time we stop putting these reel heroes on pedestal. We become like those who we revere. Our love and respect should only be reserved for the true sons and daughters of the soil. The likes of Colonel Mahadik, people willing to sacrifice everything for their country, and not for the ungrateful bunch pretending to be social reformers.
Keeping in line with Aamir’s spirit of response as he mentioned Tagore, I would like to end my statement with a quote by Shakespeare:
The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
An evil soul producing holy witness
Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”