Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"No security checks please, I’m a bollywood star"

Many of you must have read this across the Indian papers and Indian news websites about SRK’s unfortunate ordeal at the Newark airport in the US. I am still not sure whether to call it unfortunate or fortunate. The kind of media attention this is receiving is because of the star himself which is understandable but for the wrong reasons. The UPA government is over reacting to the incident and leaders like Shashi Tharoor terming it as an offensive move by the US is quite ridiculous. There are yet others who would like to have a ‘tit-for-tat’ security checks done on foreigners arriving from the US. Our VIP’s just cannot come out of the comfort cocoon they enjoy the most. Is this the way how a government should react? There are numerous rules and regulations that are bent to suit the Indian VIP’s. It is no wonder our security systems are mocked the world over. Indian VIP’s are not VIP’s all over the world. They are just another person like you and I. I could write another blog on how Indians want to know every damn thing about US/UK and how ignorant they are about us. That’s the reality.

The US security system just did their job as they would do to any traveller. Now that traveller was SRK, so what? The only reason this has got so much of attention is because it happened to SRK. I don’t remember our government reacting this strong when many Indians were humiliated post 9/11. This is also raised as a case of racial profiling by the US. Have we looked at our own back yard? Muslims find it very difficult to find a house in Delhi or Mumbai. The owner has all the right to do a background check of his tenants rather than govern by prejudice. When this is evident within our country we are cribbing about racial profiling by the US.

SRK has the right to feel hurt about his experience. It would be the same for any of us, had we gone through his kind of plight. But SRK should know that they haven't seen his movies and that he is not famous in the US as he is in (at least the personnel's who frisked and interrogated him). America or any other country can only increase security measures to deal with the current situation the world is in. His wish to frisk Angelina Jolie & Megan Fox when they are visiting India is ludicrous.

The security systems should be applicable to one and all be it a politician, a star, from a certain section of a community or just another commoner. The rules should not be subverted for any section of our community be it a VIP. We Indians have to learn to obey rules and regulations even if his or her status symbol is high up the ladder of popularity. There are so many other important things our government should address rather than have this one blown out of proportion. Let us not over react to something that is very evident within our own country.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

This sounds sensible. I agree with you 100%. We can avert a lot of problems if we ignore such petty issues. Instead of making such a fuss, its people like SRK who has to respect the law of the land and take this in his stride.

Biju said...

Thank you Roshnaa.:-)

mathew said...

i completely agree with your views here..SRK is a intelligent chap..he knows when to blow the trumpet to his own benefit!! but its sad to see the unprofessional reaction from the govt on this..

Jyothi Sanjeev : said...

i agree with you completely on this. news papers and most of the news channels are talking about this , people are protesting in diff parts of the country and iam sure king khan is more than happy that this happened.

Biju said...

@mathew-Thanks :-)
@jyothi-Thanks :-)

Shanbhog said...

Nice read... As you said, Indian VIPs are not VIPs all over the world... So one cant expect to be garlanded and welcomed at every airport they land in. And also, as mentioned, for SRK it had been a while since he made it to the front page. And now, he's successfully done that...

mrkips said...

Hey Biju, yes! Indians need to clean up racism which is very prevalent in India in order to be taken seriously when accusing other countries of being racist. Similarly, I felt the issue about Indian students in Australia was completely blown out of proportion. VIPs in India often think that they're divine due to the huge attention they get from the masses in India. So perhaps, once in a while, such incidents bring them back to earth! ;) Well, I don't know the exact details of the incident, but if there was hard evidence that the US Security officials were busting SRK's chops for the heck of it, then perhpas the Indian govt. has a case. As regards to frisking Angelina Jolie and Megan Fox, it's obviously NOT ludicrous! Don't be so naive and tell me that you have no idea why SRK wants to frisk those two dames! He just wants to relax and get over all the stress! ;)