Turkish balcony blushes for La al Singh
Turkey's popularity ratings are not exactly too high these days, possibly because of its proximity to Pakistan and unpalatable stand on Kashmir. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made such sweeping comments as, 'India has become a country where massacres are widespread'; that 'the issue of Kashmir is as close to us as it is to you Pakistanis...'; 'eight million people are stuck in Kashmir despite UN resolutions...' etc.
No wonder the denizens of social media are frowning at Aamir Khan's meeting with Turkish First
Lady Emine Erdogan at the presidential residence in Istanbul, the sentiment largely being that Khan must choose his friends wisely.
Khan's visit, of course, was for an innocuous reason: to complete the shooting for his upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha,
which is an adaption of the 1994 Hollywood classic, The Forrest Gump. But social media has its own queer logic; moreover, it does nor forgive and forget. So, users of social media platform Twitter lost no time in reminding Aamir that he was never in a tearing hurry to
meet Israeli premier Netanyahu wheh he had visited India and had skipped an event in his honour. According to reports, the actor sought the meeting with Emine Erdogan, as he wanted to update her about the work of his non-profit Paani Foundation. Soon after the meeting, Emine tweeted three photos featuring her with Khan on August 15 and captioned them with, "I had the great pleasure of meeting @aamir_khan, the world-renowned Indian actor, filmmaker, and director, in Istanbul. I was happy to learn that Aamir decided to wrap up the shooting of his latest movie 'Laal Singh Chaddha' in different parts of Turkey. I look forward to it!" But the optics in the presidential balcony did not impress the VHP. According to a report in the Print, the self-proclaimed custodians of Hindu beliefs, slammed Khan’s meeting, saying that the love of some individuals and actors for “anti-India” forces is increasing by the day. Ironically, others like Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi seem to share the sentiment and reportedly put out a tweet on Monday morning about Turkish President Erdogan being “anti-India” and a “self-appointed Caliph”, and called the country an invisible threat for India. he, of course, denies the remarks had anything to do with Aamir's visit. This is not the first time Khan has ruffled feathers in the Right Wing. He was pilloried for lampooning Hindu icons in his film and targeted for his comments he was “alarmed” by several cases of intolerance, and his wife Kiran Rao had even suggested they should leave the country.