India's Contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill

Has India Gone Crazy?

UN closely analysing possible consequences of Citizenship Amendment Bill: UN spokesperson The UN is closely analysing the possible consequences of India's amended Citizenship Act, a spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres has said.

India abandoning its founding principles with Citizenship Amendment Bill The purpose is to create, through law, a permanent threat to hang over every single Muslim head in India, writes Mihir S Sharma. ........ As with Trump’s “Muslim ban,” this law’s inability to hide its true intent is almost comic. Migrants fleeing religious persecution in the Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are to be granted citizenship--but not those fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka or Myanmar. It is the latter, of course, where there’s a genuine humanitarian crisis — but the Rohingya are Muslim, so by the BJP’s logic they cannot and do not deserve a place in the Hindu homeland of India. Hindus being murdered in Pakistan can flee to India — but not Shias, Baloch or Ahmedis, who are if anything currently even more at risk in that troubled country. Once aspiring to be as multicultural, secular and inclusive as other modern liberal democracies, India now looks less to those countries as its model and more to Israel, Pakistan or China........ But it would be a mistake to think this new citizenship law is only about migration and refugees and nebulous notions of national identity. It is far more immediate and insidious than that, particularly when seen in combination with the other big state project in border areas: a national register of citizens, or NRC, which demands that residents produce extensive documentation, sometimes going back decades, to prove their Indian citizenship. Naturally,

this exercise is particularly difficult for some of India’s poorest, who have little or no paperwork.

In the border state of Assam, millions were thrown into legal limbo when they were left off the NRC. ....... The purpose of the Citizenship Amendment Bill is simple:

when combined with the NRC, it can protect poor Hindus from the regulations that could render any poor Muslim a non-citizen at the stroke of an official’s pen.

The purpose is to create, through law, a permanent threat to hang over every single Muslim head in India: Don’t stand up for yourself, or we will set you the impossible task of proving that you are, in fact, Indian.......... Some people are puzzled that, in the midst of an economic slowdown that it has no idea how to combat, the government is instead spending enormous amounts of political capital on India’s variant of the Muslim ban. ........ India’s Partition, in which one country turned to religious nationalism and one to secular liberalism, is the largest such natural experiment in history. One country, Pakistan, headed down the road to disaster; the other, India, has managed to make something of itself. Who would have thought that the one with a chance of success would decide at this late stage to emulate its less successful twin?

Divide and win: How Citizenship Bill and NRC are BJP's next Ram Mandir

Fight is for India How Muslims are striving to keep it peaceful, inclusive and secular ...... The point they were trying to hammer home: the Muslims are not fighting for themselves but to preserve the idea of India. ...... When tyres were burnt in a minority-dominated locality in Calcutta in the afternoon, messages went out on social media hinting at “riots”. ...... “These protests are spontaneous, but I have requested them not to cause hardship to people as the people are the backbone of any form of protest,” said Mamata, who is planning movements from Monday against the “twin blows of NRC-CAB (as the bill was known before it was signed into law)”. ...... ordinary Muslims have been joining the protests out of a deep sense of fear.

Smells like a page from ‘Nazi’ copybook Parallels with Hitler Germany cited ...... The MP drew a parallel between the concentration camps of 1933 and the detention camps of 2018, before adding that 60 per cent of the people in those detention camps are Bengali Hindus........ The Reich Citizenship Law of 1935 protected those with German blood....... In Germany under the Nazis there was a plan, known as the Madagascar Plan, to deport the Jews. Now, the Indian government has the National Register of Citizens (NRC) ...... “And the last one, in the German copybook they referred to a very interesting word, ‘Jews’ as ‘rats’. And, as someone said, once powerful politicians start using dehumanising language, what happens after that, termites! What are we talking about today — termites, cockroaches, vermin. These words are not used by any party worker, but these words are being used by the Prime Minister and sometimes by the home minister,” he said.

Indians punish Corbyn over Kashmir
Shinzo Abe cancels Japan-India summit amid citizenship bill violence Narendra Modi's government has said its Citizenship Amendment Bill, making it easier for non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring countries to gain India citizenship, will protect those persecuted from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. ..... The United Nations human rights office voiced concern that the new law is "fundamentally discriminatory in nature", and called for it to be reviewed.

In India’s Citizenship Act, an eerie echo of Nazi Germany’s claims to protect ‘racial comrades’ The Nazis used moral concern over the plight of German minorities abroad to construct the idea of a racialised national polity that transcended boundaries. ........ worrying similarities with the rhetoric and policies of the German state between 1929-1940. ...... Germans constituted the largest ethnic minority in Eastern Europe at the time, spread over Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece and parts of the USSR and the Balkans.The German state, the Weimar Republic succeeded by the Nazi state, tirelessly raised the issue of the oppression faced by German minorities in these states –claims that were rooted in reality. ....... In October 1933, the representative of the newly formed Nazi state to the League clarified that the German nation had “a natural and moral right to consider that all its members – even those separated from the mother country by state frontiers-constitute a moral and cultural whole”. Continuing the pursual of this policy after their withdrawal from the League, the Nazis claimed to protect their “racial comrades” either through invasion (Austria and Sudetenland) or via the acquisition of “trustee rights” in their Danubian client states that gave Germany, the “mother country”, the right to intervene to protect “the folk-group”. ..... In the words of a pan-German theorist: “Blood is stronger than the passport.” ....... Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan are constructed as helpless victims whom India must save from the tyranny of intolerant, Islamic theocratic states by easing the procedures of Indian citizenship for them. ...... rejecting the Joint Parliamentary Commission’s proposal to replace the list of groups with “persecuted minorities”, which could have included persecuted Muslims and Tamils from neighbouring countries. ....... Shah’s riposte also fails to address why the law does not extend to Myanmar or Sri Lanka – neighbouring states culpable for the systemic oppression of Rohingyas and Tamils respectively....... These exclusions tell us that the suffering of the Rohingyas, Sri Lankan Tamils or Ahmediyas does not matter to the Indian state. Akin to German policies in the 1930s, the objects of moral concern for the national community help articulate a racialised conception of the nation – the Hindu Rashtra......... Since they were not Hindus, Muslims and Christians would have to live as subordinate members of the Hindu political community, according to Savarkar.

In India, protests over new citizenship bill as Muslims fear further persecution A federal panel on religion has urged the United States to sanction India’s Home Minister Amit Shah if it passes. .......... India’s foreign ministry called the panel’s statement inaccurate, saying the bill seeks to help persecuted religious minorities already in the country. “It seeks to address their current difficulties and meet their basic human rights,” said ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar.

India's Citizenship Act gets challenged at the Supreme Court barely a day after passing Parliament
India is slowing down so fast that even experts can’t keep up
Citizenship bill is a triumph of the idea of India 'This bill is for the children of Partition who are still subject to inhuman barbarism because they profess a faith rooted in India.' ...... 'If India fails them, we shall be no better than a Pakistan which brutalises its minorities and has turned into a factory of intolerant bigots,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay. ....... It was quite revealing to hear Opposition leader after leader in Parliament opposing the bill, but none, absolutely none, had a word to say about the miseries and pains of suffering Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. ...... The bill does not stop any religious person from any country on this planet to seek asylum or shelter in India. The doors for them, Muslims or any other sect, remain open through Constitutional means. There are innumerable instances of people from all religious streams coming to India and choosing to stay here....... No one stops them. No one will ever stop them. India will remain the best place to live for those who love pluralism and democratic values......... This bill is for the children of Partition who are still subject to inhuman barbarism because they profess a faith rooted in India. ........ From Goa's inquisition to the selling of Hindu men and women in Iraq's slave market by Muslim conquerors and even recently, forcing them to leave their homes and orchards in the Kashmir valley by jihadists -- it is they who not only suffer the contempt of the Islamists for being practising Hindus, but are mocked at for raising their voice to seek help........ For Hindus and Sikhs, there is no other homeland in the world except Hindustan........ the Hindu population in Pakistan and now in Bangladesh has been continuously decreasing at an alarming rate. ....In Pakistan from 13% to 1% and less, and in Bangladesh from 22% in 1947 to 8% currently........... After centuries of subjugation, here is the first government that is speaking up for the rights of persecuted Hindus without harming any other people.

UN closely analysing possible consequences of Citizenship Amendment Bill: UN spokesperson According to the amended Act, members of Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 and facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship....... The Act says the refugees of the six communities will be given Indian citizenship after residing in India for five years, instead of earlier requirement of 11 years.

Indian president disregards protests, signs citizenship bill into law New law grants Indian citizenship for six minority religious groups, except Muslims ..... The party said the law is “prima facie communal” and questioned the exclusion of minorities such as Rohingya Muslims who were just as persecuted as other faiths listed in the law.

India’s citizenship bill puts secularism at risk The right is given to Christians — which cynics might suggest is aimed at fending off US criticism — but not Jews, or atheists. The act also ignores members of Muslim sects who do face discrimination in the three neighbouring countries, and Muslim refugees from elsewhere, such as Rohingyas from Myanmar and Uighurs from China. As such, it rekindles the two-nation theory — the idea of a Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India — that was rejected by the independence leader Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. ......... Tens of millions of Indians still have no documentation; as late as 2005-2006, only 40 per cent obtained birth certificates and even now only 80 per cent of babies are registered at birth. Replicating the Assam process nationwide could leave huge numbers off the register. The citizenship amendment law, however, would provide a path to citizenship for followers of “Indic” religions — but not Muslims. Amit Shah, the home minister, has repeatedly pledged to introduce an NRC across the country.

He has also pledged that illegal migrants will be deported before India’s 2024 parliamentary election.

........... India’s courts might yet strike down the amendment as unconstitutional. Judicial challenges are likely to take years, however, by which time severe damage might already have been done. ........ If Mr Modi’s government is serious about protecting immigrants, it should sign the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention — which asserts refugees should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to life or freedom, but to which India is not a party.

Asaduddin Owaisi files petition in Supreme Court against citizenship bill The Hyderabad lawmaker, who had torn the copy of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, has been one of the most vocal opponents of the Centre’s move.

Owaisi had alleged the bill was aimed at making Muslims “stateless”. He also warned that it would lead to another partition

during the debate in the Lok Sabha.

Citizenship Amendment Bill: Are India's claims about minorities in other countries true? Census data for 1998 shows that the Hindu population of Pakistan (which was formerly west Pakistan) had not really changed significantly from its 1951 level of around 1.5 to 2%. ....... But the data also suggests that the Hindu population of Bangladesh did fall - from around 22% or 23% in 1951 to around 8% in 2011. ...... It's true that the state religion of Pakistan is Islam. Afghanistan is also an Islamic state......... A lengthy legal battle to get that reversed ended in 2016 when Bangladesh's top court ruled that Islam should remain the state religion....... all these countries have constitutional provisions stating that non-Muslims have rights and are free to practise their faith. And individual Hindus have risen to prominent positions in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, notably as chief justices in the two countries......... In practice, non-Muslim minorities do face discrimination and persecution........Pakistani Hindus who moved to India in recent years told the BBC they face social and religious discrimination, with a particular issue being the targeting of Hindu girls in Sindh province...... In Bangladesh, there are various reasons for the decline in the proportion of Hindus over the years. The better-off Hindu population have had their homes and businesses targeted, sometimes in attempts to get them to leave so their land or assets can be taken over. Hindus have also been the targets of attacks by religious militants......... According to UN data, the number of refugees in India went up by 17% between 2016-19. As of August this year, the biggest numbers registered with the UN were actually from Tibet and Sri Lanka.

What does India's new citizenship law mean? The law does not clarify why minority migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan are favored over those fleeing Sri Lanka and Myanmar from where minority Muslims have sought refuge in India. ....... The law has been challenged in India’s Supreme Court by a Muslim political party, lawyers and rights groups on the grounds that it violates the secular constitution......... More than 500 eminent Indian jurists, lawyers, academics and actors, have signed a statement condemning the legislation.

Secularism Is Dying in India Both houses of parliament have passed a controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims.
India: Citizenship Bill Discriminates Against Muslims
Opinion: India's new citizenship act is unconstitutional Indian citizenship has always been firmly rooted in the country's constitution, which emphasizes equality, regardless of gender, caste, religion, class, community or language. ....... The recently approved Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) does exactly the opposite. It violates every one of these fundamental values and spreads the wings of "Hindutva," or Hindu nationalism, in this so-called secular country by making religion the key to citizenship. ...... The NRC in the northeastern state of Assam has already excluded nearly 2 million people from Indian citizenship. This has demonstrated the terrible human costs of dividing people and linking citizenship to documentation in a country where many people are illiterate and lack the proper papers....... Persecuted people have suffered atrocities, broken families and statelessness, among other hardships. It's also true for Muslims........

The new citizenship act shows us that India needs a refugee policy in line with international law, and not a law based on discrimination and dictated by an ideology that makes use of religion for political gains.

..... If things continue at this pace, it will not be long before the fundamental pluralistic character of India is altered.

Citizenship Amendment Bill: Decoding, what it holds for India "The constitutions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh provide for a specific state religion. As a result many persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have faced persecution on grounds of religion in those countries. Some of them also have fears about such persecution in their day-to-day life where right to practice, profess and propagate their religion has been obstructed and restricted. Many such persons have fled to India to seek shelter and continued to stay in India even if their travel documents have expired or they have incomplete or no documents," the Bill states........ Among the main opposition against the Bill is that it is said to be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution — the Right to Equality. Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPI(M) and a few other political parties have been steadfastly opposing the bill, claiming that citizenship can't be given on the basis of religion. There has also been widespread protests across North East in Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim........... there are 31,313 persons belonging to these minority community living in India on Long Term Visa...... Home Minister Amit Shah in Parliament said the bill will give a new dawn to lakhs and crores of people. Parties like Shiv Sena have been asking for an exact number. As per the IB records the numbers are -

Hindus 25,447, Sikhs 5,807, Christians 55, Buddhists 2 and Parsis 2.

Has India Gone Crazy?

How Citizenship Act, NRC will alter the idea of India, writes Barkha Dutt All of us will have to prove our Indianness. And the poorest and the Muslims will be the most hit ............. The government insists that the amended new law on citizenship (the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA) is not anti-Muslim. In fact, it claims that Indian Muslims are not even impacted by the legislation. Its stormtroopers on social media have been deployed to vociferously argue that those criticising the revamped rules — I am among them — are begrudging fast-track protection to persecuted religious minorities from neighbouring countries. .......... About 1.9 million people found themselves excluded from the NRC in Assam, but these were not just Muslim migrants from Bangladesh — the suddenly stateless included lakhs of Hindus as well. What may now happen is something like this. The citizenship law will throw a protective shield over the disenfranchised non-Muslims; the Muslim migrants will then be left to appeal before the foreigners’ tribunals. The new law also offers legal immunity to non-Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan from jail, deportation and other criminal proceedings. In other words, the only people in internment centres will likely be Muslim migrants.............. For those who say that this does not impact India’s 200 million Muslim citizens, let me ask, how can you be untouched by the signalling that there is now a hierarchy of faiths among our people? ....... If refugees have been living in abject conditions of poverty and statelessness — and I myself have met Hindus from Pakistan living for decades in dismal conditions in Rajasthan — and deserve the magnanimity of the Indian State, that should extend to all of them, irrespective of their religion. It should include Sri Lankan Tamil Hindus and persecuted Rohingyas of Myanmar. And if our national policy is that illegal entrants are infiltrators, overrunning our land and culture, and stretching our already tight resources, then that too should apply to all of those who come into India without papers and documentation and visas. How can the BJP argue this both ways?......... In Assam, they want both the Muslims and Bengali Hindus who came in after 1971 to go back. In other parts of the east, there is similar hostility towards the Chakmas. In an area where there are more than 200 indigenous communities, ethnicity, language, and culture are as emotive, and, sometimes more, than religion. ........ begs the question. Why do it at all? Why create a crisis from two decades of peace; why fix what isn’t broken; why upend the very idea of nationhood that distinguishes India from its neighbours; and why bring religion into who can be Indian or not? ...... The CAA plus NRC equation will change not just the arithmetic but the very philosophy of India.

Modi's mandate was for double-digit growth rates. Modi's mandate was for a five trillion dollar economy. Modi's mandate was for economic development. This is social regression. This is going backward. At this pace, this is Modi's last term in office: Maharashtra shows the way. This is a gross misreading of the mandate. It is not about what you did or did not write in your manifesto. How many voters read your manifesto? Forget voters. How many of your BJP leaders read your manifesto? What you did to Kashmir, now you are doing to all of India. The social fabric of India will be in tatters at this pace.

The US is the richest country. And the US is incapable of deporting its 10 million-plus undocumented. India is less rich, to put it generously, and it has a much larger population. This attempt is bigotry outright. This is ill. This is about marginalizing the marginalized. This is cruel.

The political "genius" here is to create a refugee crisis, the largest in the world, where none exists.

If this bill is unconstitutional, its opponents need to mount a legal challenge, instead of only issuing press releases. And the political blowback needs to happen. Modi is clearly steering India back to its "Hindu growth rate" days.

‘Rahul Jinnah’ a more appropriate name for you: BJP hits back at Rahul Gandhi Veer Savarkar is revered as a Hindutva icon for the BJP but is accused by its rivals of tendering apologies to the British government to secure release from jail when India was under colonial rule. ....... Addressing the Congress’ mega “Bharat Bachao Rally” at Ramlila Grounds in the national capital, Gandhi had turned down the BJP’s demand for an apology for his “rape in India” comment, saying his name was Rahul Gandhi not Rahul Savarkar, and that he would never apologise for speaking the truth.

Citizenship Amendment Bill: India's West Bengal hit by protests
Violent clashes continue in India over new citizenship bill Protests spread to Delhi as BJP government accused of making Muslims second-class citizens
India just redefined its citizenship criteria to exclude Muslims With a new law — and massive new detention camps — the country is undermining its status as a democracy....... India is home to 200 million Muslims. ...... The legislation turns religion into a means of deciding whom to treat as an illegal immigrant — and whom to fast-track for citizenship. ...... When the NRC was published in August, around 2 million people — many of them Muslims, some of them Hindus — found that their names were not on it. They were told they had a limited time in which to prove that they are, in fact, citizens. Otherwise, they can be rounded up into massive new detention camps and, ultimately, deported. ...... So far, this measure affects potentially 2 million people, not all 200 million Muslims in India. However, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has said it plans to extend the NRC process across the country....... Muslims have faced increasing discrimination and violence over the past few years under Modi’s BJP. But the one-two punch of the NRC followed by the CAB takes this to a new level. The country is beginning to look less like a secular democracy and more like a Hindu nationalist state. .......

If the Indian government proceeds with its plan, in a worst-case scenario we could be looking at the biggest refugee crisis on the planet. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom have all warned that this could soon turn into a humanitarian disaster of horrifying proportions.

...... Shashi Tharoor, whose Congress party opposes the CAB, dubbed it “fundamentally unconstitutional.” ..... Cedric Prakash, a Jesuit priest and human rights advocate, said in an emailed statement that by “assuring citizenship to all undocumented persons except those of the Muslim faith, the CAB risks ... destroying the secular and democratic tenets of our revered Constitution.” ...... India’s Constitution guarantees everyone equality under the law. Religion is not a criterion for citizenship eligibility, a decision that goes all the way back to the 1940s, when India was founded as a secular state with special protections for minorities like Muslims. ....... Harsh Mander, a noted rights advocate of Sikh origins, wrote that the CAB represents “the gravest threat to India’s secular democratic Constitution since India became a republic.” He said that if the bill becomes law, he’ll declare himself a Muslim out of solidarity. Meanwhile, he’s also calling for Indians to fight the CAB with a nationwide civil disobedience movement. ...... Already, protests are underway. In Assam’s capital, authorities have shut down the internet and implemented a curfew. ................ “The idea of India that emerged from the independence movement,” said a letter signed by more than 1,000 Indian intellectuals, “is that of a country that aspires to treat people of all faiths equally.” But this bill, the intellectuals said, is “a radical break with this history” and will “greatly strain the pluralistic fabric of the country.” ......... The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said India is taking a “dangerous turn in the wrong direction,” adding that the US should weigh sanctions against India if it enshrines the bill in law. ......... The only hope for those who oppose it is that it will be struck down in court on the grounds that it’s unconstitutional. ........ Those in Assam whose names do not appear on the NRC have been told the burden of proof is on them to prove that they are citizens. But many rural residents don’t have birth certificates or other papers, and even among those who do, many can’t read them; a quarter of the population in Assam state is illiterate........... Residents do get the chance to appeal to a Foreigners’ Tribunal and, if it rejects their claims to citizenship, to the High Court of Assam or even the Supreme Court. But if all that fails, they can be sent to one of 10 mass detention camps the government plans to build, complete with boundary walls and watchtowers. ........ The first camp, currently under construction, is the size of seven football fields. Even nursing mothers and children will be held there. “Children lodged in detention centers are to be provided educational facilities in nearby local schools,” an Indian official said. ....... If the detainees in the camps end up being expelled from India — and that is the government’s plan — this could constitute a wave of forced migration even greater than that triggered by Myanmar in 2017, when hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were displaced........ And it’s not clear where the newly stateless people would go. Neighboring Bangladesh has already said it won’t take them. All this has induced such intense anxiety that some Muslims are committing suicide........ Under Modi, vigilante Hindus have increasingly perpetrated hate crimes against Muslims, sometimes in an effort to scare their communities into moving away, other times to punish them for selling beef (cows are considered sacred in Hinduism). And this summer, Modi erased the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, which had previously enjoyed considerable autonomy over its own affairs. ........ “These infiltrators are eating away at our country like termites,” BJP president and home minister Amit Shah said at an April rally. “The NRC is our means of removing them.” Shah has openly said the goal is to deport those who are deemed illegal immigrants...... Last month, Shah said the government will conduct another count of citizens — this time nationwide. This could be used to clamp down on Muslims throughout India, potentially triggering a huge humanitarian disaster.

India passes controversial citizenship bill that excludes Muslims
India Passes Controversial Citizenship Bill That Would Exclude Muslims

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— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 14, 2019

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— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 14, 2019

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— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 14, 2019

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— Paramendra Kumar Bhagat (@paramendra) December 14, 2019

योगी आदित्यनाथ, सुर्य नमस्कार और पिता परमेश्वर

Leave India if you are opposed to surya namaskar: Yogi Adityanath



सुर्य देव जिस पिता परमेश्वर को नमस्कार करते हैं, जिनकी अराधना करते हैं, मुसलमान उसी पिता परमेश्वर के सामने सर झुकाते हैं। इतना ज्ञान योगी आदित्यनाथ आर्जन करने का कष्ट करें।

Asaduddin Owaisi Speech In Nagpur

The Genius Of The US Constitution

English: The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution Česky: Originál Listiny práv, prvních deseti dodatků k Ústavě Spojených států amerických Deutsch: Die Bill of Rights genannten ersten zehn Zusatzartikel zur US-amerikanischen Verfassung, die den Bürgern bestimmte Grundrechte garantieren Español: La Carta de Derechos de los Estados Unidos, el término por el que se conocen las diez primeras enmiendas de la Constitución de los Estados Unidos de América (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

People understand concrete, so let's talk concrete. The Pluto flyby, remember? Happened not long ago. Well, the US Constitution made that possible. The reason the US is the only country that has now been to every planet in the solar system? The US Constitution. The iPhone was brought to you by? You guessed it. The US Constitution. And it has not even been copyrighted. It is so brief. Any literate high school student can go through it in one brief sitting.

The United States Constitution was written by some kind of a genius. Karl Marx maybe?

What is most confounding to me is as to why not every country out there simply does a copy paste job on it. It would work everywhere. Just like the laws of physics don't change from solar system to solar system. Think of the US Constitution as a million dollar check that is just laying around for anyone to come and pick. Or a billion dollar check. I don't understand why it is not happening on its own. Why reinvent the wheel? The US Constitution is like the wheel. It would work in every country. You don't even have to change a thing, except replace the country's name with yours. And it would work. No need to give credit.

This is the fuel NASA needs to make it to the edge of the solar system — and beyond

Global Politics Is Perhaps Star Wars

In the Star Wars movies, you see these various life forms. There are numerous groups. They look different, they weight different, they sound different, they organize different. These are fundamentally different groups. Maybe that is what global politics is. We perhaps live on a Star Wars planet.

Yesterday I felt like the bottom fell out. What is this? What's going on? Let me go read the Shia Sunni entries on the Wikipedia. They likely have been massively vandalized. All is fair in war, I guess. I guess not all terrorists are alike. Not that I am calling anyone a terrorist.

The drone attacks prove my theory. I have always felt Americans take the Star Wars movies way too seriously.

Saudi Arabia-Iran row spreads to other nations @CNN https://t.co/wcBEiTdGlC

— Paramendra Bhagat (@paramendra) January 5, 2016

Donald Trump: Marxist? Hitlerian?

The San Diego Shooting: Defining Terrorism

What is Donald Trump? Marxist? Hitlerian? What? We know he is German. It has got to be one of the above. He does business with the Chinese. Does that make him Marxist? Yes? No?

I know a whole bunch of Marxists. Too many. In Nepal, everyone is a Marxist. The ruling party is Marxist. The opposition party is Marxist. So when they switch sides, it gets really confusing.

कौन है ये बन्दा? आखिर है कौन? पता लगाओ। For the sake of Aamir. पता करो। आधे इधर जाओ। आधे उधर जाओ। बाँकी बिखर जाओ।



The Donald is a Hitlerian. I have proof.



ये हिटलर का नाजायज औलाद। जब हिटलर बंकर में बंद था जहाँ उसने ख़ुदकुशी की वहाँ से एक बच्चा गायब हो गया था। एगो ननकिरबा गायब भ गइलबा।

The San Diego Shooting: Defining Terrorism

I have yet to read a full news item on this San Diego shooting, so forgive if I am missing out on details, but this incident has been hard to ignore in the headlines.

This Pakistani woman's neighbors back in Pakistan are in disbelief. It is unimaginable she did that, they say. So obviously her radicalization did not happen in Pakistan. Ordinary Pakistanis are overwhelmingly lower middle class, God fearing and peace loving. It is pretty humdrum. Pakistan is a larger population than Russia.

So if her radicalization did not happen in Pakistan, where did it happen? Obviously it happened in San Diego. Where in San Diego? It is possible she saw Donald Trump on TV.

And I grew up around Muslims. It was a total non-issue when Muslims dropped by my house. They were biologically identical in terms of skin color and looks, spoke the exact same language, shared the same culture. They were just a different religion. But then so are Buddhists.

And you have to understand, what Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan mean to Indians across the world -- and Indians are across the world, Indians live in every town in America -- there is no parallel in Hollywood and America. So when you badmouth Muslims across the board, don't get surprised if Indians across the religious spectrum get offended. I will. I am offended that you might be talking about Aamir. I am deeply, personally offended.

Maybe this woman saw Donald Trump on TV. And I don't mean that in a Jimmy Fallon way, I mean that in a Charlie Rose way.

It has always struck me as to the clarity of thought in the Muslim worldview. When you wrong a Muslim there is no foggy thinking that maybe I belong to the wrong caste and that's why. They are more like, I am a child of God, how dare you! I am fond of that.

So if her radicalization happened in San Diego, or on TV, who supplied her with the gun? Not ISIS. ISIS is not that sophisticated.

I have news, people. America does not need ISIS. It has the NRA.

Terrorism has to be precisely defined. When you kill one person, that is murder. When your motivation is that you don't like their kind, that is a hate crime. And hate crime IS different from murder. If one Sikh person got killed and it was a hate crime, then all Sikhs in that community should take note. Because there is a killer at large who are after people like them.

But when you kill a bunch of people, and you are driven by some kind of ideology, then that is an act of terrorism. Terrorism simply is hate crime magnified. It is possible you have never been recruited by any person or organization. It is possible your indoctrination happened over the Internet. It is possible your gun was provided to you by the NRA. But the act is an act of terrorism.

White guys are primarily guilty in this country. There is no ISIS. Not yet. That white guy killing black church goers is a terrorist. He was not sick, he was driven by ideology.

A serial killer is a serial killer, as opposed to a murderer.

Then there are some people who are mentally sick. They are not terrorists in that they are not driven by ideology. They are just not okay upstairs, it is clinical, and they got hold of a gun, and they went some place and started shooting. For me the most important question there is, how did they get hold of that gun? That is the top question. There's also the issue of universal health insurance. Where could they have gone for help?

NRA.

This is a barbaric nation with a homegrown epidemic of acts of terrorism. It does not need the ISIS. It has the NRA.

This country needs a constitutional amendment. You got done killing Indians (Native Americans), now amend it. By the way, that was also terrorism. On a massive scale. Colonialism is the El Nino of terrorism.

Objectively speaking, head count by head count, the US is no less barbaric than the territory ISIS controls. Look at all those gun deaths. The numbers are of epidemic proportions.

The only plausible explanation.

Posted by Manjushree Thapa on Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Aamir Khan And The India Intolerance Debate

आमिर खान बोलें --- ये गर्व की बात है, हिम्मत की बात है। बोलना चाहिए। ताकि पब्लिक विचार विमर्श हो इस मुद्दे पर। आमिर खान लोगों के दिल में रहते हैं। हिन्दु मुस्लिम फर्क नहीं पड़ता। और उनका करियर दिलचस्प रहा है। मेनस्ट्रीम सुपरस्टार रह के उन्होंने बहुत सारे experimental roles ही नहीं किए हैं, फोर्मुला सिनेमा से अलग जा के भी बॉक्स ऑफिस सफलता दिखा दिया है। जैसे कि PK, फोर्मुला फिल्म नहीं है लेकिन सारे रिकॉर्ड तोड़ दिए। तो, he is not just a movie star, which he is, there is ample proof, लेकिन उनका अपना एक जगह है भारतीय पहचान में। He is an element of the Indian identity, and I am so glad that is the case. वो critically सोचते हैं और अपने दिलकी बोलते हैं। ये एक ऐसा quality है जिसकी भारत के शिक्षा के क्षेत्र को बहुत जरूरत है। टॉपिक कुछ भी हो।

रह गयी अभी वाली मुद्दा की बात।

भारत इतना बड़ा देश है। जितना और देशों में मेजोरिटी नहीं होता है उससे बड़ा भारत में माइनॉरिटी है। मैं जब भारत के मुसलमानों के बारे में सोचता हुँ तो मेरा ध्यान जाता है socio-economic indicators पे, मेरा ध्यान जाता है per capita income पे। कि democracy has to be seen to be working for India's muslims.

प्रत्येक भारतीय का धर्म हिन्दु धर्म नहीं है, लेकिन प्रत्येक भारतीय का धर्म लोकतंत्र है। और मानव अधिकार उस लोकतंत्र धर्म की नींव है। मानव अधिकार नहीं तो लोकतंत्र नहीं। सीधी सी बात है। धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता एक मानव अधिकार है। किसी भी व्यक्ति को हक़ है कि वोअपने इच्छा के धर्म को मानें। कोइ हिन्दु परिवार में जन्म ले के ईसाइ या बुद्धिस्ट या मुसलमान बन सकता है। ये उसका मानव अधिकार है। और वो संविधान प्रदत अधिकार है। देशकी जो मुल कानुन है उसके द्वारा सुरक्षित है वो अधिकार।

लेकिन उतने से काम नहीं चलता। १२ साल हाई स्कूल कंपल्सरी होना चाहिए देश भरमें और एक विषय होना चाहिए सामाजिक शिक्षा जिसमें मानव अधिकार, लोकतंत्र, नागरिक कर्तव्य, बिभिन्न्न धर्मों के बारे में, सांस्कृतिक विविधता के बारे में पढाई हो। प्रमुख धर्मों के बारे में पढाई होनी चाहिए ताकि प्रत्येक नागरिक शिक्षित हो प्रत्येक नागरिक को सभी प्रमुख धर्मों के बारे में ज्ञान हो।

हिंसा अपराध है। चाहे वो धर्म को नाम पे हो या और कोई बहाने पर हो। तो hate crime के विरुद्ध सख्त कानुन होने चाहिए और उनको लागु किया जाना चाहिए। दंगा के विरुद्ध सख्त मैकेनिज्म होने चाहिए। दंगा एक लॉ एंड आर्डर प्रॉब्लम है। सोल्व किया जा सकता है।

हिंसा के अलाबे discrimination. रिपोर्ट आते रहते हैं कि मुस्लमान को घर किराए पर नहीं दिया। वो व्यवहार गैर कानुनी नहीं है तो होना चाहिए। प्राइवेट सेक्टर में नौकरी के तलाश में जाते हैं तो मुसलमान होने के नाते discrimination नहीं होने चाहिए।

लेकिन सब से मुख्य मुद्दा है education, health, job creation, entrepreneurship. मुसलमान बस्तियों में ये सब पहुँचाना है। मुसलमान जम के पढाई लिखाई करे और खुदका बिजनेस शुरू करे। लोगों को नौकरी दे।

और एक होता है public space का poisoning ----- कुछ लोग पब्लिक फिगर होते हुवे भी बहुत गलत बोल देते हैं। इस समुदाय के विरुद्ध तो कभी उस समुदाय के विरुद्ध। तो उसका काउंटर होना बहुत जरुरी है।

Hindu pride is a great idea, but Hindu supremacist thinking is not okay. आप गर्व करो। लेकिन पिछले साल जो लव जिहाद और घर वापसी के मुद्दे उछाले गए, बहुत गलत बात है। प्यार, मुहबत, शादी तो किसी की प्राइवेट बात है। कभी हिन्दु और मुसलमान एक जगह आ जाते हैं, जैसे की आमिर और शाहरुख़। करीना कपुर। तो ये  सुन्दर बात है। उसमें आपको लव जिहाद कैसे दिखाई दिया?

घर वापसी का मुद्दा भी उल्टापुल्टा है। भारत के भुमि पर जितने हैं सबको हिन्दु होना चाहिए ---- ये कितना अव्यवहारिक बात है! भुमि और मानव को उस तरह mixup मत करो। धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता तो मानव अधिकार है। किसी व्यक्ति की ख़ुशी की वो किस धर्म को अपनावे। Religious harassment should be illegal -----

बीफ। हिन्दु है कोइ बीफ नहीं खाता है -- तो that is respectable --- लेकिन ये कहने लगे कि खुद भी नहीं खाउंगा तुझे भी खाने नहीं दुंगा --- वो तो मोदीजी रिश्वत के बारे में वैसा बोलते हैं। कि खुद भी नहीं खाउंगा तुझे भी खाने नहीं दुंगा। बीफ और रिश्वत में कुछ तो फर्क होना चाहिए। आप अपना धर्म दुसरो पर कैसे थोपर सकते हो? Religious harassment should be illegal -----

मुसलमान बीफ नहीं खायेगा तो क्या खायेगा? खरगोश?

बल्कि हिन्दु धर्म प्रचार करने जाओ। जाओ दुनिया घुमो। जूलिया रॉबर्ट्स ने कन्वर्ट किया वो हिन्दु बन गयी। उन्हें अच्छा लगा। तो वैसे लोग ढूंढो। लेकिन कोइ आएगा तो स्वेच्छा से आएगा। किसी का मानव अधिकार हनन करने स्टाइल में आप धर्म प्रचार नहीं कर सकते।

India's diversity is India's strength. अभी तो भारत चीन से भी पिछे है। But if someday India is to beat America, it will be because India started celebrating free speech better than America, India started celebrating diversity better than America.

तो जो लोग भारत के भितर धार्मिक असहिष्णुता का जहर फैलाते हैं, वो भारत को विश्व शक्ति बनने के रास्ते पर नहीं ले जाना चाहते। जो थोड़ा बहुत शक्ति है भारत के पास वो भी चाहते हैं गायब हो जाए।

Democracy और Diversity में गहरा विश्वास रखने वाले लोगों को बोलते रहना चाहिए और संगठित होना चाहिए। वो देशप्रेम का सच्चा रूप है जो कि आमिर दिखा रहे हैं। मैं तो वैसे भी बड़ा फैन था, अब और बड़ा फैन हो गया।

Intolerance row: Agra Muslims condemn Aamir Khan's statement
Talking to India Today, Imran Qureshi of Bhartiya Muslim Vikas Parishad said the Muslims of India were born on this land and will be buried in this land.

Local Social activist Md. Arif Advocate said that it was questionable that the Aamir who had produced a patriotic movie like Lagaan, could have made such a statement. In fact, he said, Aamir was just voicing the thoughts of his wife who is a Hindu. ....... Imamuddin, a senior citizen aged 96 years, said that during the Friday Namaz, it was prayed that Aamir regains his senses and the country remains at peace.

Aamir Khan's PK Wouldn't Have Been a Success if India Was Intolerant: Shatrughan Sinha

Mr Khan's remarks expressing his "alarm and despondency" over the rise in recent incidents of intolerance hotly debated, he had again yesterday asserted that he stood by his comments and made it clear that neither he nor his wife Kiran Rao had any intention of leaving the country.

Shatrughan disapproves of Aamir’s remark on intolerance
Last thing Indian Muslims need: Naseer on Aamir's intolerance row

Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has expressed concern over Aamir Khan’s intolerance remark saying that it may cause further problems for the Muslims of India. ..... “I don’t think he [Aamir] should have said this. Regardless of what he feels, we Muslims do not need any further aggravation of our feeling of persecution,” said Shah. ..... Earlier, Oscar-winning music composer AR Rahman expressed solidarity with Aamir Khan over growing intolerance in India and admitted that he too faced a situation similar to that of the actor recently. ......

The music maestro spoke in relation to the fatwa issued against him by Mumbai-based Muslim academy for composing music for an Iranian film. Subsequently, his scheduled concerts in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were cancelled.

..... The fatwa also prompted Hindu extremists to bring up the issue of religious conversions. They invited the composer to “re-convert to Hinduism” and said it was time for Rahman’s “ghar wapsi“. ..... “Aamir Khan should either indulge in ‘ghar wapsi’ which will help him getting free of ‘crimes of love jihad’ of his previous as well as his present wife Kiran Rao or go to Pakistan for the benefit of India,” Hindu Mahasabha’s national general secretary Munna Kumar Sharma said. ...... “A case of treason should be filed against Khan for insulting India and traitors like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan should leave India,” he added.

Aamir Khan safe in India, his comments are insult to fans: BJP

“We won’t let Aamir leave the country, he is safe. This kind of comment influenced by a politically motivated campaign insults those who have given so much honour to Aamir in India,” said Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the Minister of State for Minority Affairs. ....... reacting to Aamir’s statement, Kiren Rijiju, the junior home minister claimed that the number of deaths in communal incidents had come down since BJP came to power last year and “to make a blatant statement is not proper.” ..... Incidences of communal violence have been growing in India, with a mob killing a Muslim man over beef-eating rumours in September. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, facing questions during his recent trip to Britain, said,

“India is committed to protecting every citizen’s freedom, and the law will deal severely with those who are intolerant.”

......... Speaking at Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, Aamir had said, “I have been alarmed. I can’t deny. I have been alarmed by a number of incidents.”

BJP shud stop silencing voices thro abuses n threats. Its high time centrl govt took concrete steps 2 instil sense of security amngst people

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 23, 2015

Intolerance debate: Hindu Sena buys Aamir Khan, family tickets to Pakistan!

Hindu Sena, the group that booked a one-way ticket for Khan, his wife Kiran Rao and their son, was in news last month after they led a Delhi police patrolling team into Kerala House claiming that a restaurant there was serving cow meat. Vishnu Gupta, the head of the group, was arrested and later released on bail.

Aamir Khan Intolerance Row: Woman commits suicide after husband criticizes actor

A dispute with her husband over remarks by Bollywood actor Aamir Khan saw a woman here committing suicide by consuming poison, her family members claimed. Police said they are investigating the alleged suicide by one Sonam Pandey and the claims by her family members that she took the extreme step as she was distressed by her husband's comments mocking Khan. ...... "Sonam Pandey and her husband Mayank were talking about newspaper reports about Khan's statement yesterday morning. My son poked fun at Sonam, saying what kind of man is the Bollywood star, who wants to settle abroad on the advice of his wife," said Mayank's father, RP Pandey. Angered by her husband's criticism of Khan, Sonam ran upstairs and locked herself inside a room, he added.

Shatrughan Sinha disapproves of Aamir Khan's remark on intolerance
No one can ask Aamir to leave India, says West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee extended support to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan who is at the centre of a controversy over his remarks on 'growing intolerance' in the country.

“They have criticised actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan and musician A R Rahman. Who are they to decide what we will say or what we will eat?,” the CM said.

Aamir Khan has said what he felt; India belongs to everyone: Mamata Banerjee



Aamir Khan: India Bollywood actor stands by intolerance remark

The ruling BJP said he should not forget that India made him a star, and it was wrong to malign the country. ...... "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," the actor wrote. ...... Khan said he stood by his earlier statement, and added that all those people who had called him "anti-national" and shouted "obscenities at me for speaking my heart out, it saddens me to say you are only proving my point". ...... BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain had criticised Khan's remarks and said there was a "political conspiracy to defame India" and there was "no better neighbour than a Hindu for a Muslim". ..... Another BJP spokesperson, Sambit Patra, said that "Aamir Khan is the face of 'Incredible India' [a TV campaign by Mr Khan to promote tourism], how can he make such a remark? I request Aamir Khan not to leave India and he won't find another nation like it". ..... Earlier this month, fellow superstar Shah Rukh Khan also spoke out against what he called "extreme intolerance" in India. .....A movement that began with writers returning state awards spread to scientists, historians and filmmakers. ......

They cited the killing of rationalists MM Kalburgi and Govind Pansare, as well as the lynching of a man over suspicions he consumed beef, as examples of rising intolerance in the country.

Aamir Khan clearly played to a script, and it does not do him credit

Given the nature of minority politics in India, where such issues are drummed up by "secular" parties to ensure that the minorities continue to vote on the basis of fear rather than pursuing their real economic and political interests ..... What Khan's statement reveals is his decision to fall in line with the dominant narrative being tom-tommed by the mainstream English media that has been left out in the cold by Narendra Modi. Incidentally, an interesting aspect of the rising English media chorus of "growing intolerance" is that it is not supported by any kind of data or a benchmark from which this "rise" can be calculated. Barring a cacophony of statements by Sanghis, there is no evidence whatsoever that there is any actual rise in intolerance. ........... Aamir's calculated statement can at best be put down as another voice added to this self-indulgent and self-righteous echo chamber in the English language media. ...... First, I doubt if anybody in India thinks we have nothing to fear, given the state of our policing, our weak legal systems, and the space we have given to criminals and vested interests in cities and villages. I too would fear for the safety of my daughters in India, especially given the patriarchal nature of our society and its inability to bring up its sons to respect women.

We have strong laws and a weak state, making it near impossible to assume that we will be protected from rabid elements.

......... Many Indians have left Indian shores for better prospects, and it is this diaspora that believes in Modi and his idea of India by and large. From businessmen to ordinary students to techies, Indians have always sought to improve their material condition by taking advantage of merit-based systems in the West. The poor, on the other hand, went to West Asia to earn more while living like second-class citizens, whether in Saudi Arabia or even parts of the UAE. After decades, they are still not given citizenship. ......

In the sub-continent, Hindus and Muslims from Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, and now even Pakistan have, legally or illegally, moved into India as economic or political refugees. The Nepalese have been welcomed like they were our own citizens, and despite some hesitation to accept Muslim economic refugees from Bangladesh, they are here and voting their own leaders in Assam, West Bengal and Bihar.

...... If there is a beacon of tolerance in the sub-continent, it is India. The only areas of long-term intolerance (as opposed to short-term intolerance caused by riots) are in Kashmir, where an entire generation of Pandits has been driven out in the worst act of ethnic cleansing ever practised after 1947. ..... The fringe will be the fringe, and there is no point assuming that in a country of 125 crore, no one will ever make politically-incorrect statements. ...... Two years ago, a white supremacist shot people in a gurdwara in Wisconsin. Over the last two years, we have seen race riots after the shooting of African-Americans in Ferguson and Baltimore by trigger-happy cops.

When his name is Khan, can Aamir really expect to be treated as an equal in America?

....... The far right is rising under Marine Le Pen. The face veil is banned in France, not in India. ...... For a country with 125 crore people and all their multiple diversities, insecurities and concerns involving caste, religion, and ethnicity, we are a mighty tolerant lot. ........ This does not also mean that the Sangh hotheads should continue to vitiate the atmosphere. Modi would do well to put a tape across their mouths or even chuck them out of his ministry. But that still will be no guarantee that someone will not make an intolerant statement somewhere...... Surely, Aamir Khan does not want a state where everyone is gagged. That would be even more intolerant than the intolerance he would like to complain about.

I stand by everything I have said: Aamir Khan on his comments about intolerance

The actor ended his statement by quoting Rabindranath Tagore's famous poem, "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."

Aamir Khan: India home minister Rajnath Singh's jibe at actor

Without naming Khan, Rajnath Singh told the parliament that despite insults, iconic Dalit leader "BR Ambedkar never said he would leave India". ..... "Dr BR Ambedkar had to put up with insults and derision. Yet, he controlled his emotion and put forward an objective point of view for India. He never said how he was being ignored and insulted in India," Mr Singh said in his remarks in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the parliament...... "He said I will stay in India and keeping the Indian values and culture in mind, I will strengthen the country," Mr Singh added. ..... Despite his clarification, the controversy refuses to die down and the home minister's comments are seen as the latest salvo fired at him by BJP politicians. ..... However, the session is likely to be a stormy one, with opposition parties demanding a debate on "growing intolerance" in the country. ..... BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said the government was "willing to discuss all issues, including the so-called issue of rising intolerance even though the incidents that happened were in the domain of states… We do not support or condone such incidents".

Controversy Over Aamir's 'Intolerance' Remarks Refuses to Die

BJP national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain advised Khan to visit his ancestral village Akhtiyaarpur in Hardoi district in Uttar Pradesh and see for himself with how much love and harmony people live there. ...... Hussain said that Aamir left the village at an early age and joined Bollywood, but people there still believe in 'Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb', a term used to describe mutually participatory co-existence of Hindu and Muslim culture. He was talking to reporters in Lucknow.

Anupam Kher Lashes Out At Aamir Khan, Asks Him To 'Spread Hope Not Fear'
Aamir Khan has insulted India with intolerance statement, says Ramdas Athawale

Senior Shiv Sena leader and the state Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam on Tuesday said Khan "can go to Pakistan" if he didn't love India. "The police should also conduct an inquiry whether Aamir's statement is anti-national," he said.

An open letter to Aamir Khan

Your name is Khan and you Sir, are a hypocrite.

Aamir Khan’s answer at RNG awards an innocent one: PK director Rajkumar Hirani
Coming out in support of under fire Aamir Khan, director Rajkumar Hirani stoutly defended his 'PK' star.

the director said, “Aamir Khan didn’t call for a press conference. He was at an award function where he was asked questions on various topics and one of the topics was this which he answered and his answer was I was distressed and sad that my wife once said this to me. To me it is an innocent answer. He spoke about what was said inside his home affairs in public and one should have ignored it. But the way people jumped and attacked him, intolerance was visible.” ..... For Raju, the most distressing factor was linking Aamir’s statements to his Muslim identity. Said Raju, “His statements were then linked to him being a Muslim. Such a thought never crossed my mind.

I have celebrated every Diwali at Aamir’s place.

The way these talks are spreading through social media, some divide is visible. We should pick positive things in life and talk about it.”

@aamir_khan Aamir Khand And The India Intolerance Debate https://t.co/xwIjcudoHq

— Paramendra Bhagat (@paramendra) November 27, 2015

@AnupamPkher आप @aamir_khan पर थोड़ा ज्यादा ही कड़ा प्रतीत हुवे ऐसा लगा हमें। https://t.co/xwIjcudoHq

— Paramendra Bhagat (@paramendra) December 3, 2015