Modi government 'fascist' over Aamir's 'mann ki baat', says Congress

New Delhi: The Congress Party on Wednesday alleged that Bollywood actor Aamir Khan is being targeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party because he belongs to a minority community and said it reflects the fascist view of the ruling dispensation at the Centre.

Expressing surprise over the latest verbal spat post Aamir's remark over growing intolerance, Dikshit said it is not even a controversy.

"The government and the people who support the government must rise up and understand why a person of eminence of Aamir Khan has said this. He is not someone to known to talk of controversies in the past. He has normally kept his opinion to himself. He only comes on problems like drugs, cancer, child abuse, etc," Dikshit told ANI.

He asserted that Aamir's statement means there is some fear and anxiety in the minds of some people.

"Rather than taking cognizance of the fact, and any course corrections needs to be necessary, these people are taking a completely fascist view. Why isn't anybody protesting about when Kamala Hassan made exactly the same remark about intolerance? Mamata Banerjee has said that Amitabh Bachhan mentioned the same thing about intolerance. Why isn't anybody talking about those points also? Why just Aamir Khan? Is it because he belongs to a minority community or now that BJP thought he was a poster boy for them?" he asked.

Another Congress leader P.L. Punia also backed the Bollywood actor's statement and said that it was completely wrong to question the intention of such a nice human being whom the government has itself made the icon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream campaign 'Swachh Bharat'.

Punia told ANI that Aamir had just shared in public domain his personal conversation with his wife over the present atmosphere.

"If he is a brand ambassador of the 'Incredible India, then doesn't he has the right to put forward his views? There is no point to make such a huge issue when he has only put forward his 'mann ki baat'," he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on yesterday termed his statement as incorrect, improper and bereft of facts.

"Statement made either is incorrect or improper because it is bereft of facts. The facts are completely contrary," BJP spokesperson and MP Meenakshi Lekhi told ANI here.

"I am not sure of the husband wife discussion going on in the television. The fact he has not left, he did not think that his wife's statement was appropriate," she added.

BJP MP from Gorakhpur Yogi Adityanath also condemned Aamir's statement, telling the actor to leave the country if he wants to.

"If he wants to leave then who is stopping them. At least, in this way the population of the country will be reduced," he said.

The Shiv Sena also launched a scathing attack on Aamir and questioned his patriotism.

"If India is not safe for living, then which country is 'Idiot Ranchoddas' (Aamir's character in the movie 3-Idiots) planning to go? Is it Pakistan, Afghanistan, Paris, Brussels or Mali? He should declare at earliest. Those who do not feel that the country is theirs should stop pretending to be patriots," said the article published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamna.

The editorial asserted that instead of standing firmly with the country in difficult times, Khan was thinking of leaving.

Aamir Khan expressed "alarm" and despondency over the rise in such cases "in the last six to eight months" and even said that his wife thought of leaving the country.

Aamir, who was speaking at the eighth edition of the Ramnath Goenka excellence in journalism awards yesterday, said that a sense a sense of "insecurity" and "fear" had seeped deep within society.