Termed ‘Desh Drohi’ (Anti-national) after wife Kiran Rao’s remarks on leaving India on the tolerance controversy, the noble soul Aamir Khan has put all the sad events into the backburner and joined Fadnavis governments flagship ‘Jal Yukt Shivar’ or the drought Free Village Scheme which aims to make every village self-reliant. Aamir Khan does not like to talk much but let his work do the talking and Khan’s Paani Foundation has aligned with top industrial houses to address the issue of droughts and farmer suicides which is truly commendable.
If you feed a poor you satisfy his hunger for a day but if you educate him to find employment, you make him reliant to feed himself for lifetime. Similarly, giving money to debt ridden farmers would only reduce cases of farmer suicides temporarily but if the main issue of drought is tackled, no farmer will commit suicides in future. Aamir Khan’s popularity has brought top industrialists like Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Rajiv Bajaj apart from cricketer Sachin Tendulkar to the much needed project and I am sure Maharashtra’s drought situation would become a thing of the past in the coming years. Education, training and modern equipments backed by the much needed finance would mean modern irrigation facilities that should help farmers maximize their produce even in years of scanty rainfall by conservation of water technology. Aamir Khan one thought was being made a scapegoat for one of his remarks which was blown out of context for political reason by some people. The actor henceforth should keep his mouth shut and let his noble deeds do the talking and here is wishing him good luck in this endeavour!
S.N. Kabra
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
