What the backlash against Bollywood's Aamir Khan tells us about India

[Zarvan]

Soutik BiswasDelhi correspondent

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionAamir Khan is a top Bollywood star
The bitter backlash against Bollywood star Amir Khan's remarks about "growing intolerance" in India tells us a few things about the world's largest democracy.

At a journalism awards ceremony, Khan said there was a growing sense of fear, insecurity and despondency in the country, and that when he discussed things with his filmmaker wife, Kiran Rao, she wondered whether the family should move out of India.

"It is disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child, what the atmosphere around us will be, she feels scared to open the newspaper every day. There is a growing sense of disquiet, and despondency. You feel depressed, you feel low. Why is this happening?" Khan said.

Many believe Khan was spot on. In drawing-rooms in recent months, friends and acquaintances have told me that they worry about India - the dull economy, shambolic criminal-justice system, unchecked corruption, the fussing about non-issues, and now the acts of intolerance and the coarse and polarised levels of debate - and they would prefer their children to leave. There is a sense that the immense hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had offered before sweeping to power last year is fast slipping away.

Many high-profile writers and artists have raised concerns about what they feel is rising religious and cultural intolerance - rationalists have been killed and a Muslim man lynched over suspicions he consumed beef.

Not imploding
To be true, India is certainly not imploding with religious violence. But theprotests against intolerance by artists and writers appear not to be so much a reaction to the scale of incidents, but a creeping anxiety over whether the highest levels of the government, including Mr Modi, seriously want to condemn or put their imprimatur behind them.

To make matters worse, Mr Modi and his senior ministers have not been quick enough to speak out against the incidents and hate speech, and when they have eventually done so, they have sounded scripted and remote. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, for example, famously said that the lynching of the Muslim man would actuallyhurt India's image and "amount to policy diversions".

But the fierce public and social media backlash against Aamir Khan by the ruling BJP and supporters of Mr Modi possibly holds up a mirror to hardened positions in today's India.

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionKhan (left) said his filmmaker wife Kiran Rao (right) had even suggested that they leave the country

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionThere were protests outside Khan's house after his remarks
One is the rise of what a commentator calls a "species of hardcore supporters" of Mr Modi, who are derisively called Modi Bhakts - bhakt means worshipper of a deity - by liberal opponents.

They are not the fawning, old-fashioned sycophants that India's leaders are used to. Their identification with Mr Modi goes beyond mere spirited support, and they defend their leader with a sense of identification and aggressiveness which is unprecedented in India. Some of them behave more like his self-appointed intellectual guardians.

'Conspiracy'
Many of these supporters also believe that the world is out to get Mr Modi and say people with a history of reservations against him - Khan had condemned the 2002 Gujarat riots - have not been able to reconcile themselves to Mr Modi becoming prime minister.

What accounts for the emergence of the uber supporter? "Maybe, many of us were looking desperately for a strong leader and when we thought we had found one and elected him to power, we lost all perspective," wonders analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta.

Secondly, criticising Mr Modi is increasingly being conflated with defaming India.

Junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju says Khan's comments on intolerance "only bring down the image of the country and the prime minister". This, many believe, follows from rising hyper-nationalism and fragile self-esteem.

Image copyrightAFP
Image captionMohammad Akhlaq was lynched over rumours that he had consumed beef
Many Modi supporters appear to be defining nationalism by the hard, irreconcilable position of loyalty rather than the values that India stands for. Mr Modi and his party cannot be entirely blamed for this worrying trend, which is becoming more glaring as India continues to frustrate its aspiring millions.

Thirdly - and most disturbingly - is a tendency to tell India's Muslims that they should be grateful that India is looking after them.

Disguised sectarianism
Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who is an ardent supporter of Mr Modi, said Khan should remember that "this country has made you Aamir Khan". Implicit in such remarks, believe many, is a barely disguised sectarianism.

BJP chief Amit Shah spoke about crackers being burst in Pakistan if the BJP lost the recent Bihar elections. (The party suffered a drubbing, and there were no reports of any such celebrations across the border.) Senior party leader Giriraj Singh openly said that "those opposed to Mr Modi should go to Pakistan".

"There is a sense among the practitioners of majoritarian politics in the ruling party of creating a fantasy world of politics where Muslims don't matter. Also, now prejudice can be expressed without describing somebody as Muslim," says Mr Mehta.

But there is hope.

Far away from the shrill echo chamber of social media, the majority of Indians have proved to be calmer and more sceptical. The results of the recent Bihar election are a good example of that.

Critics say Mr Modi's government needs to realise that silence and inaction can breed anxiety.

There were a number of federal ministers present when Khan made his remarks at an awards ceremony on Tuesday. Many wondered why Arun Jaitley, the senior-most minister in the audience, did not stand up and say he understood the actor's anxiety and that his government would guarantee that every Indian, irrespective of his belief, was safe?

Why are Mr Modi and his ministers not articulating some of these elementary things?

What the backlash against Bollywood's Aamir Khan tells us about India - BBC News

@nair @GURU DUTT @Gufi @SarthakGanguly @third eye @Water Car Engineer @MilSpec

 

[Anees]

already 7 thread running in this subject .... 1 more get added ..



Pakistani Christian Television Channel named “Gawahi” was set on fire

 

[Stag112]

He is super rich and ultra elite. He is lying through his teeth if he says he is worried for his kids. I mean a more privileged, more powerful and famous kid would be difficult to find.

The only time he should have felt threatened was when terrorists attacks five stars in Mumbai in Nov 2008. Those places he and his kid is likely to be at. But I guess he was busy then telling everyone that terrorism has no religion.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

It hurts when rich Muslim says , because they are icon of secularism (fake one)

the poor Muslim are hardly heard killed or neglected to rot or beaten up

The truth is coming out slowly and its not pretty

 

[Bang Galore]

No Intolerance, There's Room for Dissent and Fake Dissent: Arun Jaitley
All India | Edited by Anindita Sanyal | Updated: November 26, 2015 09:25 IST

India, Arun Jaitley said, is the "most liberal democracy in the world".

New Delhi: India's tolerance can be gauged by the fact that not only there is space for dissent but also fake dissent, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley told NDTV today.

The minister's remark came as the debate on intolerance started raging again following the comments of actor Aamir Khan. Mr Jaitley refused to speak on what he called "individual comments".

But he said, "India's liberal tradition is evidence to the fact that we not only have space for dissent but also great space for fake dissent... Are we in a position to take action against those who have voiced manufactured dissent?"

In a democracy there will be people who do not maintain the best standards of public discourse. They can be advised to desist, the minister said.

"If someone associated with my party does it -- at the level of PM and the party president and I have asked them to quieten down. Similarly, those who have a differing view should do the same," he added.

India, the minister said, is the "most liberal democracy in the world" - the exception being during the Emergency. Drawing a comparison between the verbal attacks made in France and Germany in the aftermath of the terror strikes in Paris, he said the situation here is much better.

The comments of Aamir Khan has caused a huge controversy, with a section of his fans and colleagues hitting out at the actor.

The government, too, had reacted sharply, with Union minister Venkaiah Naidu saying, "Some people are misleading and some people are misled. Who comes in which category, I do not want to say."

Incidents like attacks on rationalists, a mob killing over beef-eating rumours and controversial statements by central ministers have been held up by opposition parties and a section of civil society as examples of intolerance under the current regime.

In protest, a number of authors and artistes have returned their awards, which too, has been criticised.

 

[Anees]

Aamir specking itself shows trolence , imagine in other country u cannot talk against Govt ...

When PK was release there was big objection but film was release without any one been killed in Hindu majority nation.
Imagine French cartoon publish in christian country ,imagine what happen ..
So where is Intolerance really ??? still in India really ????

Come on Aamir , Ur wife don't have brain but at least you should think before u speak ..

Can we expect PK like movie in other religion orientation ... See the difference ..

Visharopaam was good example ..

 

[Stag112]

To be true, India is certainly not imploding with religious violence. But the protests against intolerance by artists and writers appear not to be so much a reaction to the scale of incidents, but a creeping anxiety over whether the highest levels of the government, including Mr Modi, seriously want to condemn or put their imprimatur behind them.

Read the highlighted carefully.

Read it again.

In other words it says, no material facts but trends and narratives.

Now where have we read this before???

Mind you, this is not a reaction to anything material. This is offensive in nature. The propaganda, the victimhood propaganda every aggressor needs in order to justify his aggression. From Bin Qasim to Sartaz Aziz!

 

[kaykay]

No Intolerance, There's Room for Dissent and Fake Dissent: Arun Jaitley
All India | Edited by Anindita Sanyal | Updated: November 26, 2015 09:25 IST

India, Arun Jaitley said, is the "most liberal democracy in the world".

New Delhi: India's tolerance can be gauged by the fact that not only there is space for dissent but also fake dissent, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley told NDTV today.

The minister's remark came as the debate on intolerance started raging again following the comments of actor Aamir Khan. Mr Jaitley refused to speak on what he called "individual comments".

But he said, "India's liberal tradition is evidence to the fact that we not only have space for dissent but also great space for fake dissent... Are we in a position to take action against those who have voiced manufactured dissent?"

In a democracy there will be people who do not maintain the best standards of public discourse. They can be advised to desist, the minister said.

"If someone associated with my party does it -- at the level of PM and the party president and I have asked them to quieten down. Similarly, those who have a differing view should do the same," he added.

India, the minister said, is the "most liberal democracy in the world" - the exception being during the Emergency. Drawing a comparison between the verbal attacks made in France and Germany in the aftermath of the terror strikes in Paris, he said the situation here is much better.

The comments of Aamir Khan has caused a huge controversy, with a section of his fans and colleagues hitting out at the actor.

The government, too, had reacted sharply, with Union minister Venkaiah Naidu saying, "Some people are misleading and some people are misled. Who comes in which category, I do not want to say."

Incidents like attacks on rationalists, a mob killing over beef-eating rumours and controversial statements by central ministers have been held up by opposition parties and a section of civil society as examples of intolerance under the current regime.

In protest, a number of authors and artistes have returned their awards, which too, has been criticised.

Jaitley is bang on.

 

[Mamsalaphala]

He is super rich and ultra elite. He is lying through his teeth if he says he is worried for his kids. I mean a more privileged, more powerful and famous kid would be difficult to find.

The only time he should have felt threatened was when terrorists attacks five stars in Mumbai in Nov 2008. Those places he and his kid is likely to be at. But I guess he was busy then telling everyone that terrorism has no religion.

You need to understand that he said this because he is an Indian and not because he is a Muslim

And then he wonders why he is not considered a spokesperson for All Indian and is view as a muslim spokesperson. ...... any Idea why ?