Open Letter By Aamir Khan - "I am proud to be Indian."
Updated : April 06, 2016 11:02 AM IST
Bollywood actor Aamir Khan has been recently involved in a nationwide debate about intolerance for his remark of leaving the country because his wife fears about their son.
Dear @aamir_khan. When did ‘Incredible India’ become ‘Intolerant India’ for you? Only in the last 7-8 months? #AtithiDevoBhavah
— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) November 23, 2015Actors like Raveena Tandon and Rishi Kapoor have given him a piece of their mind onver this statement of his, which did not go down well with this fellow industrymen and citizens of the country. Anupam Kher too had a point to make against Aamir.
Mr.&Mrs. Amir Khan. When things are going wrong and the system needs correction,repair it,mend it.Don't run away from it. That is Heroism!
— rishi kapoor (@chintskap) November 24, 2015<
While some people favoured him, others bashed Aamir Khan and carried out protests. The actor finally took to social media to make his point and here's a befitting open letter by him to his countrymen.
"First let me state categorically that neither I, nor my wife Kiran, have any intention of leaving the country. We never did, and nor would we like to in the future. Anyone implying the opposite has either not seen my interview or is deliberately trying to distort what I have said. India is my country, I love it, I feel fortunate for being born here, and this is where I am staying.
Secondly, I stand by everything that I have said in my interview.
To all those people who are calling me anti-national, I would like to say that I am proud to be Indian, and I do not need anyone's permission nor endorsement for that.
To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point.
To all the people who have stood by me, thank you. We have to protect what this beautiful and unique country of ours really stands for. We have to protect its integrity, diversity, inclusiveness, its many languages, its culture, its history, its tolerance, it's concept of anekantavada, it's love, sensitivity and its emotional strength.
I would like to end my statement with a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, it's a prayer really :
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free,
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments,
by narrow domestic walls,
Where words come out from the depth of truth,
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection,
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way,
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit,
Where the mind is led forward by thee,
Into ever-widening thought and action,
Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.
Jai Hind.
Aamir Khan."
Source: Facebook