‘Shame on Parrikar’: Twitter reacts to the Defence Minister’s jibe at Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan, was at that time, the brand ambassador for Snapdeal, an e-commerce giant. Snapdeal, faced a strong backlash on social media, including a reported loss of customers. After a few months, the online company did not renew their contract with the Bollywood filmstar.

Manohar Parrikar went on to say that his team is very smart and keeps a track of such incidents. He also said that his team asked people to order and return the products, which led the online company to remove the advertisement.

The minister also said that the actor’s statements were very arrogant.

Manohar Parrikar received strong backlash from the political leaders of opposition parties.

Is @manoharparrikar job to protect India from external aggressors like Pakistan or threaten fellow countrymen like actor Aamir Khan?

— Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) July 31, 2016

.@riteshpoladia according to me Aamir has the right to criticise, @manoharparrikar has the right to criticise him. And organise boycott!

— Gul Panag (@GulPanag) July 31, 2016

.@manoharparrikar‘s statement proves a concerted conspiracy to curb all dissent, hound Dalits & Minorities. Can this be the ‘Raj Dharma’?

— Randeep S Surjewala (@rssurjewala) July 31, 2016

Apart from political leaders, several public figures, including media personels and Bollywood artists also posted their displeasure over the Defence minister’s speech.

So now Defence Minister @manoharparrikar admits that “our teams” on social media went after @snapdeal to remove @aamir_khan

— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) July 31, 2016

I think @manoharparrikar is confused. Defense Minister of the India, defending BJP’s teams of paid-trolls. Stunning! https://t.co/lXn6hJqvJh

— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) July 31, 2016

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Several people came out on twitter to say that Manohar Parrikar does not ‘deserve’ to be the Defence minister of the country.

@manoharparrikar u don’t deserve to be our defence minister Shame on Parrikar

— vivek sekhar (@viveksekhar1) July 31, 2016

@Rajaroysaha @aamir_khan @manoharparrikar iski to😡 Shame On Parrikar

— Ace Is Life:* (@ayushc811) July 31, 2016

@manoharparrikar sir as Defence minister you want Strong Action please substantiate we are “ignorant & weak”would Firing squad be enough?

— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) July 31, 2016

Remove @manoharparrikar as defense minister, we can’t afford to have gundas as our ministers.

Shame On Parrikar

— Aamir Khan Fan (@TheGufranKhan) July 31, 2016

The citizens of India expressed their disappointment as they believed the Defence Minister showed little concern over major issues, such as the missing An-29 IAF plane, and focused his attention on the actor Aamir Khan.

Manohar Parrikar has no answer for missing aircraft AN-32 but has time to take dirty, below the belt swipe at #Aamir Khan.
Shame on Parrikar

— Agam Anand (@AgamAnEntity) July 31, 2016

do your duty @manoharparrikar Instead of commenting on anyone

Shame On Parrikar

— Ankit Sharma (@rajeshh0010) July 31, 2016

At a time when a debate is raging over the alleged use of disproportionate force by security forces in Jammu & Kashmir, Parrikar also argued strongly for the use of “full power” by the Army in counter-insurgency operations.

Watch: Full Speech of Aamir khan at Ramnath Goenka (RNG) Excellence Awards (2015)

“I do not want to train the Army to use the lathi,” he said. He added, however, that the decision to call in the Army was to be taken entirely by the civilian authorities.

“Where to use the Army is a civilian decision. However, whenever the Army is used, full power has to be there, otherwise do not use the Army,” he said.