“It wasn't pleasant or nice but I also do respect the fact that it’s meant to be a procedure which needs to be followed if you want to enter America. I understand that a country has to be a little careful specifically with the things that have happened,” Saha Rukh Khan told CNN-IBN.
“But I have a simple logic that once you have been to a consulate, you've done your retina scan and fingerprints...I'm assuming those are the same ones that are sent to immigrations here, why is it that one needs to figure out other things besides that? And at the end of it all what’s ironic is that they didn't even do my retina scan and finger scan...so that’s a little strange. They kept telling me that you know it’s because your name is common and I was too polite to ask common to what?” he said.
“Everybody loves coming to America and everybody loves what America has to offer but I think it needs to offer a little more warmth and speed in its processes. America needs to understand one small thing...that there are about 190-195 small countries and that makes the whole world. It’s not an isolated, parallel universe existence for this country. There is a whole world which makes all the good and bad that is happening. So if we are scared of violence and terrorism, all of us are responsible for it. It’s not that the world is and America is not,” he said.
However, it’s noteworthy that on the same day as Shah Rukh Khan was checked at the airport, American legend Bob Dylan was also asked for identity checks by police in New Jersey by two policemen who did not recognise him.
So are Indians overreacting? Could this – as many are suggesting – possibly be a timely grabbing at the opportunity to garner publicity for his upcoming release My Name is Khan?
To debate the issue on CNN-IBN’s Face the Nation were theatre personality Amir Raza Hussain, columnist Lord Meghnad Desai, Congress MP Jayanthi Natarajan and South Asia Bureau Chife of Der Spiegel Padma Rao.
Senior Congress leaders were the first to react on the issue with Tourism Minister Ambika Soni even going to the extent of suggesting a tit-for-tat. Others who reacted included Shashi Tharoor, Praful Patel and later on Monday night, even P Chidambaram. It seems the politicians simply cannot snap out of the VIP syndrome.
But Jayanthi Natarajan felt the issue was only worthy of being spoken about and did not amount to overreaction. “That’s not a charitable view. The reason why it’s a matter of debate is because it happened to Shah Rukh Khan. Everybody who travels knows that in the US, it’s not really random checking. There’s a certain typecasting and usually it’s Asians with a particular kind of surnames who get picked out” she said, also referring to Abdul Kalam’s frisking case.
Ironic that Natarajan would seem to speak for everyone considering the Government never reacted to the humiliation that many Indians were put through immediately after 9/11.
While SRK insists he was frisked because of his Muslim name, the same day musical legend Bob Dylan too was asked to go through a security check, America’s very own Senator Kennedy was also made to go through the routine checks and so was ex-vice president Al Gore
Source: ibnlive.in.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment