Picture this. President Obama on a visit to India. Gets detained at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Why? Because he has a Muslim-sounding name. Rubbish. He's the President of the United States, everyone knows him!
Muhammad Ali on a visit to India. Gets detained at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Why? Because he has a Muslim-sounding name. Rubbish. Everyone knows him!
Salma Hayek on a visit to India. Gets detained at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. Why? Because she has a Muslim-sounding name. On come on, that's got to be utterly rubbish! Everyone has the hots for her!
Shah Rukh Khan on a visit to the US. Gets detained at Newark Airport. Why? Because she has a Muslim-sounding name. Aah, that's perfect. American security forces are on high alert. Their intelligence is of the highest order.
I feel safe in America now!
4 comments:
While I understand that SRK is a big star and that the US is a little paranoid about these things since 9/11, I think the whole event is being blown out of proportion. Besides I wouldn't compare SRK with the US president or the PM of any other country for that matter. In all honesty, if Sanjay Dutt can be involved in terrorist activities and if Salman Khan can drive his car over people, I don't see why SRK could not do anything negative. I don't think it was necessary to detain a star of his calibre for so long. But I also don't see why we are making such a big deal about it. It was news yesterday. People reacted. Period. Now, it's being taken up by the government. I'm sorry. That's just too much. I think the government is better off taking care of other more national and global issues.
On a prallel note, on April 24th, former President Kalam, went through something similar. But he refused to take it up with the government. I doubt if it was even debated over so much.
I don't think SRK made a big deal of it, just like Kalam. I think they are far too big for that.
I also don't think it's fair to talk about Salman and Sanjay, and they justify this. If SRK was guilty, so be it.
The point is, this is racial profiling! You hold someone because he is Muslim and then lecture India about religious percecution?
How much time does it take to verify that he is indeed SRK? An hour? Two hours? This is the nonsense I am referring to.
A recent report by USCIRF caused several people here to panic and shout "see we told you".
What's the evidence that Shahrukh was detained ONLY on the grounds of his surname? Did US officials mention anywhere that it is his surname that they had problems with? I am searching the news.
Does it really mean that Tendulkar, Harbhajan, Subhash Ghai are exempted from the security checks? Or they dint make an issue out of it?
I think we are going too overboard with the so called virtue of secularism. If sharukh feels he was humiliated because of a "security check" it is probably because of his misplaced self ego nothing else.
While the US will never say WHY he was detained, or why visas are refused, or why people are turned back from immigration, and in many cases now, why people are detained indefinitely, that's not the point.
The point is:
1) SRK is a global icon, not just some Indian called Khan. Even if you were a dumb American whose world view was limited to the neighbourhood baseball match, it wouldn't take much to verify! A simple google search on his machine (I am sure they have one :)) would have solved the problem
2) He was refused access to his phone, to make any calls to people who could vouch for him!
3) He was apparently detained because his luggage was misplaced by the airline - that's ridiculous. If they knew the luggage was misplaced by the airline, then why wasn't he allowed to make calls?
4) So if it wasn't because he was a Khan, and they knew who he was, all they needed to do was let him go and ask him to collect his luggage later!
Tell me, is this too difficult to expect if I am a global icon?
And from the American point of view, in a country where such behaviour is now becoming more and more rampant, it needs to be very sensitive to this now, since all it is doing is harming its image in the world. It desperately needs to reach out!
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