Rubbishing Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s assertions that he made on his 50th birthday over the ‘growing intolerance’, the Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said that the former and megastar Amitabh Bachchan have been accepted as superstars because of tolerance in the country.
Sanjay Raut, a top leader at Shiv Sena, said that there was no need for Shah Rukh Khan to have interfered into this controversy.
“Shah Rukh Khan should not interfere in this matter. Those who are talking about intolerance in this country are wrong,” Raut said.
“We have been so tolerant that we had made Dilip Kumar a superstar. We had also recognised Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan our superstars. Doesn’t it show our tolerance level? We accept everyone irrespective of religion,” he added.
Raut insisted that if people like Shah Rukh Khan continue giving these kinds of statements then it would bring an insult to the nation in front of the world.
Shah Rukh Khan had joined the debate swirling around ‘intolerance’ on his 50th birthday, when he told a leading news channel that there was ‘nothing worse than religious intolerance and that it would take India to the Dark Ages’.
“Our religion cannot be defined or showed respect to by our meat-eating habits. How banal and silly is that,” he said, supporting the views of writers, filmmakers and others who have returned their awards in protest against the rising intolerance.