Is SRK's detention planned?
All of the news channels & news papers were flooded with the news of the detention of SRK at the Newark Airport in the US on the eve of Independence Day celebrations in India. Whichever news channnel you could have opened on that day, you must have seen the SRK episode news. But is this whole episode planned. Watch this.
After the whole row Harbhajan Singh is reported to have said, “This is a normal thing. The media is unnecessarily creating a fuss. It happens to me and my other colleagues in the Indian team. It happens all over the world.” Harbhajan, however, said he did not know why Shah Rukh was detained for two hours. “I don’t know exactly what happened. But it is the media which has made it a big issue”. It is a known fact that it happened earlier to George Fernandes and recently to A P J Abdul Kalam.
While Harbhajan Singh dismissed Shahrukh Khan’s detention as just a ‘normal’ affair, the US media reacted to the same quite vehemently saying, “This never happened to Schwarzenegger,” noted New York Daily News reporting how “Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who plays a Muslim mistaken for a terrorist in his latest film, says he was racially profiled at Newark Airport and detained for two hours on Friday.”
“The 43-year-old ‘Tom Cruise of India’ – cited last year by Newsweek as one of the world’s 50 most influential men – was released only after Indian diplomats intervened,” it said describing him “as the international box office sensation” who has appeared in more than 70 films.
It took note of US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer’s statement that “Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a very welcome guest in the United States”. “Many Americans love his films.”
“But there were no Bollywood buffs in Newark as Khan came through the airport on his way to Chicago for a celebration of India’s independence day” it noted. “I told them I am a movie star,” Khan said – although the line fell on deaf ears.
Meghnad Desai, an Indian-born economist, member of Britain’s House of Lords and author of books on Indian cinema and globalisation, joked in an interview in New Delhi that the whole thing seemed like a publicity stunt for Khan’s new film.
“The US government was an inadvertent accomplice to 20th Century Fox, which is investing millions in this movie,” he said. “This was a no-no for India-US relations.”
The New York Times too took note of the incident with an agency story headlined “Bollywood Icon Detained at US Airport.”
A spokesman for the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection said Khan was questioned for 66 minutes as part of the agency’s routine process to screen foreign travellers and was not detained.
“Due to privacy concerns, Customs and Border Protection cannot disclose the specifics regarding any traveller’s inspection,” the CBP said in a statement.
“Generally speaking, travelers applying for admission into the United States are subject to inspection. The inspection process may include a more in-depth interview and baggage examination.”
“CBP strives to treat all travellers with respect and in a professional manner, while maintaining the focus of our mission to protect all citizens and visitors in the United States,” it said, adding,” inspection lasted a little more than a hour.”
“Unfortunately, Khan’s checked luggage was lost by the airline which contributed to his delay during CBP processing,” the statement said.
“Travellers may be referred for further inspection for a variety of reasons to include identity verification, intent of travel, and confirmation of admissibility.”
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