Don't make a Big Deal of Shahrukh Khan's Detention

Sunday, August 16, 2009

After a long time actor Salman Khan has come up with a real gem. On hearing about Shah Rukh Khan being questioned by US security at Newark, New Jersey, he said it’s good that the country has such a tight set-up. And that ‘‘there has been no attack after 9/11 because of this’’.

Salman has a point. SRK might be an icon to Indians, even to the desi diaspora spread across the globe, but to America he’s just a visitor. We may be convinced he cannot be involved in anything that’s remotely violent, but the guard given the responsibility of stopping something like 9/11 from happening in his country again will want to take no chances.

Interestingly, the same day that SRK was detained in Newark, there came news that the great Bob Dylan, wandering around Long Branch, near New York City, was asked for an ID by two cops too young to know who he really was. When he couldn’t furnish one, Dylan was taken back to the resort where he was putting up and staff there vouched for him. And America is Dylan’s own country. Was there a furore? Not even a little blowin’ in the wind.

SRK says he’s ‘‘upset and angry because it was his Muslim name that caused all this’’. Countless Muslims are made to go through extra security checks everyday in America and other Western countries. Is he equally upset at that? He’s probably just miffed that it happened to him, India’s mega star.

Well, America is a different country after 9/11, one that takes the killings of its people with the seriousness it deserves, unlike India whose record on this is shameful.

There are two layers to the SRK incident and we must peel them off with care. One, it is quite ridiculous that Indians feel their icons are everybody’s icons. What the heck? If Jet Li came to India tomorrow, very few would give him a second look. For that matter, what if Gerard Depardieu came traveling? Matt Damon was here recently and there wasn’t a traffic jam in Delhi. These guys are huge back home.

Moreover, America doesn’t have a culture of fawning the way India has. Mike Tyson was treated like a common rapist and spent most part of his youth in the slammer. Winona Ryder was sentenced to a three-year probation for shoplifting. Chinese born Hollywood actress Bai Ling was fined US $200 for petty theft.

We are actually aggrieved because we are ‘‘not like them’’. Guess what, it isn’t a virtue. We should be like them and take the security of our country with solemn, no-nonsense professionalism. Frisk Brad Pitt when he lands in India next. Give Tom Cruise the same dose. Don’t spare Bill Clinton either. Isn’t he an ex-prez, just like Kalam? Who’s stopping you and what’s stopping you? Colonial hangover? Or is it plain callousness? Looks like both.

We are just whimpering over here like hurt puppies because we feel, ‘‘Oh, but we don’t do it to them’’. Oh no, we don’t. And it’s a scandal. We should.

Instead of making SRK’s detention an issue, we should think of upgrading our own security apparatus. There’s a lesson in this, a positive one. The bottom line: Stop fawning, shed the colonial hangover and make no compromise where the country’s safety is concerned.

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