Saturday, August 15, 2009

I am king Khan, above security checks

So Shahrukh Khan was detained at the US airport for couple of hours for secondary immigration check.

This in his own words has apparently made him feel bad, angry.

There are two angles to the story, you know.

One, the whole Indian mentality of someone who is a celebrity/powerful/rich is above the law. There is no reason why a Shahrukh Khan or any politician from the country should not be subjected to a secondary security check on a principal level. Someone's celebrity status doesnt gurantee his non-criminal inclinations. Past examples indicate even otherwise, considering some actors and actresses from Hindi film industry have hobnobbed with gangsters who have turned terrorists. Same with Politicians. There is a strong Politician to criminal nexus in our country. There is no proof that just because some one is loved for their on screen performance is good in real life. From hollywood to bollywood, there are only reports that says otherwise that stars are as untrustable as the common man.

So, if Indian government and all others make a big fuss out of this when you havent really stood for other Indians in a similar manner, it is bullshit. There are people dying in Australia due to racism, compared to that Shahrukh getting gruelled for two hours isnt a big deal. Shame on media/ Politicians and celebrities who think otherwise.

On the other hand, I am against religious profiling. What US does today to Muslims is in principle the same as what jews were handed out by europeans for centuries. The intensities are obviously different but simply suspecting some one as terrorist because of a name, a muslim name is the same.

Inspite of a much higher number of bomb attacks, this sort of religious profiling in such a brazen manner cannot happen in India, simply because Muslims form a significant part of the part in elections.

In case of US, their population isn't significant. On the other hand, the population which would feel safe by such measures is significant enough in terms of election votes. No wonder, US government has been able to carry this on.

Hollywood has released what 100s of holocaust movies? Each one of them winning an award, yet we will never learn from them. Again I repeat, the intensities might not be same. But the idea is the same. And if people dont oppose this, we all know the famous poem, isnt it? "First they came for .."



3 comments:

  1. The sad thing is that, after all this hue and cry is over, nothing might change for the aam-aadmi. Such high-profile profiling could be helpful in more menaingful dialogue between the two countries, but it might just end up amounting to nothing

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  2. atleast his "dont feel like stepping on US soil anymore" will curb certain teenagers/fans their enthusiasm about US. :D good!

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  3. Kaushik:
    US, as they say in tamil, is the cat no one can bell.

    Amrita:
    If it does to him, atleast his movies will be shot in India then:)

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