Manohar Parrikar: Aamir’s remarks on leaving India arrogant

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday took a jibe at Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan as he raked up his remark about leaving the country and described it as “arrogant”.

“One actor had said that his wife wants to live out of India. It was an arrogant statement. If I am poor and my house is small, I will still love my house and always dream to make a bungalow out of it,” he said, without naming Mr Khan.

Mr Parrikar was speaking here after releasing the Marathi version journalist-author Nitin Gokhale’s book on Siachen.

In November last year, the PK actor had joined the chorus against growing atmosphere of “intolerance”, saying he was “alarmed” by the number of incidents with his wife Kiran Rao even suggesting that they leave the country. “When I sit at home and talk to Kiran, she says ‘Should we move out of India ’ That’s a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day.”

“That does indicate that there is this sense of growing disquiet, there is growing despondency apart from alarm. You feel why this is happening, you feel low. That sense does exist in me,” Mr Khan had said.

According to Mr Parrikar, when the actor made the statement, many had protested agai-nst his remark.