Reacting to actor Aamir Khan's remarks on intolerance in India, the ruling BJP said there was little truth to Khan's remarks and that India was, is, and always will be a tolerant nation. "Moving out of the nation, is an individual's choice," the BJP said. Speaking to The Indian Express, party spokesperson Nalin Kohli reiterated that the continuous free debate and the expression of dissent has taken place all the time, proof enough of how tolerant a society we are. "There have been incidents, but we cannot allow the exceptions to become the defining character of India. India was, is and always will be a tolerant society," Kohli said, adding "the only time we have seen intolerance in India is during the Emergency under Indira Gandhi. Nobody could even express themselves freely. Where is that situation in the country after that? No less than the President and Prime Minister have spoken about how tolerant a society we are." Watch: Aamir Khan breaks silence on intolerance debate Khan, who was speaking at the eighth edition of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism awards, spoke of how he felt there was a feeling of despondency. "Kiran and I have lived all our lives in India. For the first time, she said, should we move out of India? That’s 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. She feels scared to open the newspapers everyday. That does indicate that there is a sense of growing disquiet,” he said at the ceremony in the presence of Union ministers Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Suresh Prabhu and Najma Heptullah. Kohli said there could be multiple reasons behind Kiran thinking of moving out of the country. "That's an individual choice. There is no prevention on that. It could be for education, career, business and tax reasons. Any individual can exercise that right. The fact that we have millions of people illegally immigrating to India and nothing happening against them is also an example of tolerance." Late Monday night, veteran actor Anupam Kher tweeted in reaction to Khan's remarks, suggesting that the Bollywood star was creating a sense of fear when he ought to have spoken about hope. "Dear @aamir_khan. #SatyamevaJayate u talked about evil practices but gave Hope. So even in ‘Intolerant’ times u need 2 spread Hope not Fear," Kher, who had last month led a counter protest rally, tweeted. Kohli also sought to remind Khan about his own film PK that faced opposition for hurting religious sentiments. "His own film PK, though there were some protest over hurting religious sentiments, was a resounding box office. Hasn't he seen how tolerant a society we are?"
