Farooq Abdullah defends Aamir, says his statement was distorted

JAMMU: National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah today came out in defence of actor Aamir Khan, saying the controversy surrounding him was a "propaganda" and the actor never said that he wanted to leave the country.

"When did he say that he wants to leave the country? I was myself sitting there. It is a wrong propaganda against him. He never said that he wants to leave India, he (Aamir) said that India is my country. I am born from this soil and I will die in this soil," Abdullah told reporters here today.

He said that there was no reason for Aamir to leave India as he had never said that, but blamed the media for spreading a false propaganda against the film actor.

Farooq paid tributes to veteran Congress leader and former Finance Minister of J&K, Lt Girdhari Lal Dogra, on his death anniversary at a function here.

Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, Minister C P Ganga, Priya Sethi, BJP leader and Speaker J&K Assembly Kavinder Gupta were also present at the occasion.

Speaking at an award ceremony, Aamir Khan had said, "To complete my answer that there is a sense of fear more than there was earlier. I do feel there is a sense of insecurity. When I sit at home and talk to Kiran. (Wife) Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India?

"That is a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make to me. She fears for her child. She fears about what the atmosphere around us will be."

Abdullah said that Indian Muslims were proud to be Indians and nobody wants to go to Pakistan.

"You should ask this to the Governor of Assam who is sitting there and making such statements. Nobody is ready to go to Pakistan from here. We are Indians and Indian Muslim is no less than anyone else as we are proud of being Indians," he said.

He said that God did not ask the people where they want to be born, so we have to accept everybody irrespective of the religion he was born in.

"We are proud to be Indians. If I was born in Jawaharlal Nehru's house and Indira Gandhi was born in Sheikh Abdullah's house but God did not ask us where we wanted to be born," he said.

He said that these days people are trying to create a wedge amongst different societies.