Anyone speaking against the country must be taught a lesson of his life, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday. Without taking names, the Union minister gave examples of "an actor" and a certain “online trading company”, who, he said, were taught lessons for the former's remarks against India, reported The Indian Express. Parrikar was speaking of Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and the controversy he courted in November 2015 for his comments on intolerance in the country.

At the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards on November 23, Khan had noted that there was a “sense of growing disquiet” about India's social fabric. “When I chat with [his wife] Kiran at home, she says, 'Should we move out of India?'" he said. "That's a disastrous and big statement for Kiran to make. She fears for her child. She fears what the atmosphere around us will be. She feels scared to open the newspapers every day."

His remarks were severely criticised by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and right-wing group supporters. Since Khan was the brand ambassador of Snapdeal, a number of outraged users on social media started a campaign to downvote and uninstall the company's mobile phone app. The intention was to financially penalise Khan for expressing his views. Following this, Snapdeal did not renew the actor's contract of endorsement with the company.

“Actorne jeva hey kela, thehva jya company la toh advertise karat hota… online trading company hoti. Aple log thoda jaste hoshar ahet. Mala mahite ahey there was a team which was working on this… They were telling people you order and return it… The company should learn a lesson, they had to pull out his advertisement… [When the actor did this… then the company which he was endorsing was… an online trading company. Some of our people are very smart, I know. There was a team which was working on this. They were telling people you order and return it… The company should learn a lesson, they had to pull his advertisement],” Parrikar said. The minister said the actor's statement was very arrogant.

Speaking about the Indian Army, Parrikar said he supports the use of “full power” by the forces during counter-insurgency operations. “I do not want to train the Army to use the lathi,” he said. However, he agreed that the decision to use the Army is a civilian call. "However, whenever the Army is used, full power has to be there, otherwise do not use the Army,” he said.