New Delhi: Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who has been facing flak over his comments on ‘growing intolerance' in the country, has finally come out to defend his stand on the issue.
Aamir said that neither he nor his wife have any intention of leaving India. Moreover, the star added that he still stands by everything he said and the people who are shouting obscenities at him for speaking his heart out are only proving his point.
Here is the full text of what Aamir Khan said in his defence
"First of all I want to make one thing clear that neither I nor my wife Kiran has any intention of leaving the country. It never was, is or will be our intention. Those who are spreading such words have either not seen my interview or may be doing it purposefully to create misunderstanding. India is my country and my love for it is extreme. It is my homeland.
Secondly, I stand by what I said during that interview. I would like to tell the people who are calling me traitor (desh-drohi) that I am proud of being an Indian. I neither need anyone's permission nor do I require any certificate to prove my patriotism.
To all the people shouting obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point.
I would like to pay my gratitude to the people who stand with me at this time. We have to protect the striking nature of our beautiful and outstanding country. We have to safeguard the country's unity, harmony, diversity, culture, traditions and history. We need to preserve its scepticism, varied languages, love, tolerance and emotional strength.
In the end, I want to recall a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. It is not a poem but a prayer.
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
