Renowned Bengali film-maker Aparna Sen said said that there was nothing wrong in what Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan said about religious intolerance in India.
She said that the reaction by Sadhavi Prachi said in reaction was more divisive than the protest against religious intolerance.
Speaking to NDTV, Sen said, “This is ridiculous. I had expressed my outrage even then on social media. What did Shah Rukh Khan say wrong? In fact what Sadhvi said was much more divisive… As for Aamir Khan, he’s given us Satyamev Jayate, which is one of the most patriotic things to have happened on TV. Just because I’m a Muslim I’m not allowed to express my opinion freely.
“This shows the degree of insecurity (in India). I agree, there are many countries where people like Aamir Khan will be more insecure than India. But India was never like this.”
Shah Ruh Khan, on his birthday last month, had said that there was growing religious intolerance in India adding that ‘Being religious intolerant and not being secular is the worst crime you can do as a patriot.’
His comments had sparked a national outrage with some BJP lawmakers describing him anti-national asking him to move to Pakistan.
Later on, Aamir had revealed that his wife Kiran Rao once contemplated leaving the country because she found the atmosphere dangerous in India.
Sen expressed her anguish that the perpetrators, who committed acts of crime in the name of religion usually did so with impunity in India.
She said, “How can you say that we are going to lynch somebody (in reference to Dadri lynching) just because he’s eaten beef and then go unpunished? I think the self appointed guardian of two respected religions are to be blamed. Religions have to grow and evolve.”