On Sunday, the congress launched a fierce attack on Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar over his jibe at actor Aamir Khan for remarks on intolerance.
Party vice-president Rahul Gandhi said: “RSS & Parrikarji want to teach everyone a lesson. Here’s a lesson for you: hate is the preserve of the coward and it never wins.”
On Saturday, Parrikar had said at a function in Pune that “anyone speaking against the country must be taught a lesson in the same way that an actor and an online trading company were taught”.
On Sunday, Facing criticism, Parrikar said he never used the word “lesson” and that what he meant was, “You have to build pressure, you have to build public opinion that people who love their country should not be silent on these issues.”
According to Parrikar, when the actor made the statement last year, many people had protested and even uninstalled the mobile application of an online shopping site he was associated with, while the firm had also pulled out the advertisement featuring him.
According to Congress spokesperson Randeep S Surjewala, “it was a shocking revelation and showed that the BJP and RSS supporters actively disrupted and sabotaged an online trading company on the Aamir issue.”
