India slams U.S. 'habit' of detaining Shah Rukh

April 13, 2012 01:48 pm | Updated July 13, 2016 01:34 pm IST - New Delhi

Actor Shah Rukh Khan replies to a question during an interactive session at Yale University in New Haven on Thursday.

Actor Shah Rukh Khan replies to a question during an interactive session at Yale University in New Haven on Thursday.

India on Friday reacted sharply to actor Shah Rukh Khan's two-hour detention at a New York airport on Thursday, saying the apology the United States offered was nothing but mechanical. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna asked India's Ambassador in Washington, Nirupama Rao, to take up the issue. He said detention and apology had become a habit with the U.S., which could not continue.

The actor was detained for over two hours by immigration officials after he arrived from India in a private plane with a group that included Nita, wife of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, to address students at Yale University.

While the rest of the team passed through immigration, Mr. Khan was detained and questioned. The actor was finally allowed to go following intervention by the Consulate-General of India (CGI) in New York.

This is the second time the actor has been detained for detailed questioning at a U.S. airport and he joins several Indian Muslims, including the former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and BJP leader Shahnawaz Khan, who had been singled out for attention by the U.S. authorities because of their surnames.

Apart from Mr. Khan's high profile, there is an additional irony in his latest detention: In 2010, he starred in a Bollywood movie set in the U.S., My Name is Khan, which critiqued the official stereotyping of Muslims as suspicious persons.

While the U.S. was quick to apologise, there was no attempt at redress. The fine print after contriteness had been expressed was to advise the actor to register on a website that takes note of inconveniences suffered by a traveller to the U.S. such as racialism or repeated detentions because of mistaken identity.

The actor himself made light of his detention, tweeting that “whenever I start feeling arrogant about myself, I visit USA. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom.”

In Delhi, following up on an apology letter by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to the CGI, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Peter Vrooman summoned TV cameras for a readout to dampen the public relations damage. Describing the Bollywood movie star as a “great actor,” he said that even his daughter was taken in by Mr. Khan's movies and recalled a song from his latest movie that he claimed was the child's favourite.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.