Actor Aamir Khan on Monday added his voice to the intolerance debate in India, saying that there is an increased sense of despondency and insecurity in the country over the last six-eight months. Addressing an audience at the Ramnath Goenka journalism awards, Khan said it is important that the people in power strongly condemn incidents of intolerance and what’s wrong. “India’s social fabric is not at its best right now,” he added.

The 50-year-old actor supported filmmakers, academics, historians and artists who had returned their national awards due to growing intolerance in the country. He said that they had a view to express and returning awards is “one way of getting your point across”. He added, “I support any protest that is non-violent. As long as you’re not violent, then everyone has right to protest.”

Khan also said that religion should be delinked from acts of terrorism. He said, “When you see a person committing violence, the first mistake we make is labeling them an Islamic terrorist or a Hindu terrorist. You should just call the person a terrorist and remove the religion tag.”