(photos below: Sharukh at Yale; Mukesh Ambani's wfie Nita and daughter Isha)
വാഷിംഗ്ടണ്: പ്രശസ്ത ബോളിവുഡ് നടന് ഷാരൂഖ് ഖാനെ ന്യൂയോര്ക്ക്
വിമാനത്താവളത്തില് തടഞ്ഞുവെയ്ക്കുകയായിരുന്നില്ലെന്നും നടപടികള് വൈകുക
മാത്രമാണ് ഉണ്ടായതെന്നും യു.എസ് വിദേശകാര്യ വക്താവ് മാര്ക്ക് ടോണര്
അറിയിച്ചു.
ഷാരൂഖ് ഖാന് പ്രശസ്തനായ കലാകാരനും നല്ല
വ്യക്തിത്വവുമാണെന്ന് അംഗീകരിക്കുന്നതായും ഇന്ത്യയെ ഖേദം അറിയിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ടെന്നും
ടോണര് പറഞ്ഞു. എന്നാല് സംഭവത്തില് വംശീയ സ്വഭാവമില്ലെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം
കൂട്ടിച്ചേര്ത്തു. റിലയന്സ് ഇന്ഡസ്ട്രീസ് ചെയര്മാന് മുകേഷ് അംബാനിയുടെ
ഭാര്യ നിത അംബാനിക്കൊപ്പം ഒരു സ്വകാര്യ വിമാനത്തില് എത്തിയ ഷാരൂഖിനെ സുരക്ഷാ
പരിശോധനയുടെ പേരിലാണ് വൈറ്റ് പ്ലെയിന് വിമാനത്താവളത്തില് ഇന്നലെ
തടഞ്ഞുവെച്ചത്.
ഇതിനിടെ ഇന്ത്യ യുഎസ് പ്രതിനിധിയെ ഇന്ത്യ വിളിച്ചുവരുത്തി
പ്രതിഷേധം അറിയിച്ചു. ഇന്ത്യയിലെ യുഎസ് മിഷന് ഉപമേധാവി ഡൊണാള്ഡ് ലുവിനെ
അമേരിക്കയുടെ ചുമതലയുള്ള ജോയിന്റ് സെക്രട്ടറി ജാവേദ് അഷ്റഫ് ആണ്
വിളിച്ചുവരുത്തി പ്രതിഷേധം അറിയിച്ചത്.
India asks US to avoid SRK-type incidents
By Arun Kumar (21:24)
Washington, April 14 (IANS) After the outrage in India
over the detention of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan at a US airport,
New Delhi has asked Washington to take steps to avoid such incidents in
the future.
To "convey the deep concern that has been expressed
nation wide in India" over Khan's detention at White Plains airport near
New York Thursday, the Indian Embassy here said it has taken up the
matter with the US Department of State.
It has also "sought the
State Department's intervention to institute appropriate measures to
avoid recurrence of such an incident in the future", it said in a press
note Saturday.
According to the embassy's version of the
incident, about half an hour after the arrival of "the internationally
renowned Indian film star" by a private jet at White Plains airport
Thursday afternoon, the Indian consulate in New York received
information that he had not been cleared by the US Customs and Border
Protection (USCBP).
"The Consulate General immediately intervened
with the concerned authorities for his early clearance, which was done
within 75 minutes of his arrival," it said.
"Khan thereafter left
the airport. The same evening, USCBP authorities, through an email to
the Consulate General conveyed their profound apology for the incident.
Caught
on the wrong foot over the detaining of Khan at a US airport twice in
less than three years, Washington had Friday asserted it was not a case
of racial profiling or a pattern.
Suggesting that Khan was not
"detained", but "simply delayed", State Department spokesperson Mark
Toner told reporters: "I wouldn't necessarily look at this as some sort
of pattern but rather two separate incidents."
Toner also
dismissed a suggestion that it was racial profiling. "I think we all
know that that's clearly not the case. The fact of the matter is tens of
thousands of Muslims travel to and from the United States every day and
are not detained or delayed."
In August 2009, too, Khan was detained at New Jersey's Newark airport.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
No profiling or pattern in Shah Rukh detention, says US
By Arun Kumar (10:01)
Washington, April 14 (IANS) Caught on the wrong foot
over the detaining of Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan at a US airport
twice, Washington has asserted it was not a case of racial profiling or a
pattern.
Suggesting that Khan was not "detained", but "simply
delayed", State Department spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters
Friday: "I wouldn't necessarily look at this as some sort of pattern but
rather two separate incidents."
"Obviously, we've expressed our
regret about the incident and recognize that he's a very renowned artist
and humanitarian," he said.
Toner also sought to paint the
detaining of Khan at New York's White Plains airport Thursday when he
arrived to receive the prestigious Chubb fellow award at Yale University
as a "delay", saying "he was temporarily delayed before admission" to
the US.
However, he dismissed the suggestion that it was racial
profiling. "I mean, I think we all know that that's clearly not the
case. The fact of the matter is tens of thousands of Muslims travel to
and from the United States every day and are not detained or delayed."
The
spokesperson was hard put to explain the "reasons for delay"
acknowledging that only Khan was not allowed to disembark from the plane
when he arrived on a private jet with Nita Ambani, wife of Reliance
Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Both the Indian Ministry of
External Affairs as well as the Indian Embassy in Washington have
expressed their concern over Khan's detention for the second time in
less than three years, he said.
In August 2009 too, Khan was detained at New Jersey's Newark airport.
Toner
also suggested that to avoid such incidents "travellers can alert -
identify their status before they depart via the embassy. And that's
one approach or avenue to take."
Meanwhile, Yale University also
sought to play down the incident. "As SRK himself would tell you, what
is most important in his movies is how they end rather than how they
begin," Assistant Secretary George Joseph stated.
"And yesterday, things began in an unfortunate manner, but ended in a way that left everyone happy."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
Shah Rukh victim of US random selection system
By Mayank Chhaya (15:14)
Chicago, April 14 (IANS) When India's star actor Shah
Rukh Khan was detained and questioned for two hours at the Newark
International Airport in August, 2009, the action could well have been a
result of the random selection parameter built into the U.S.
immigration's security system rather than only racial profiling.
With
Khan reliving that experience on Thursday at a small airport in New
York state, the question whether that parameter was designed
deliberately to focus on people of certain names, religion, background,
nationality or race has cropped up again. The possible answer is
unlikely to placate a certain segment of Indian population that feels
outraged at the actor's treatment.
At some level it is
understandable that the whole security apparatus has been designed to
not just take out potential terrorists in their first attempt but to
disrupt their operation at any and every stage. No one at the Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) is likely to acknowledge that the system
works the way it does because of a built-in combination of intelligent
and brute logic as well as preordained bias.
Khan's name or one
that closely resembles his appears to be on a list of over a million
others that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has compiled of
people it thinks are, at the very least, of suspicious antecedents.
Getting off that list for those like the actor who have absolutely
nothing to do with terrorism has been known to be a nightmare in
America. The list has been a subject of serious scrutiny and criticism
by civil liberties groups which believe it is sweeping in its reach and
more often than not throws up those who have absolutely nothing to do
with any terrorist groups.
On the face of it, Khan may have been
randomly picked out by the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services' database. The system at the White Plains, New York, airport
threw up Khan's name for any number of variable reasons. It is hard to
speculate on the algorithm that triggered it.
Someone might argue
that the Khan = Muslim = possible terrorist = detention logic, although
profoundly offensive, seems to have been built into the system with the
rationale that it is better to humiliate a thousand innocent Khans than
let a potential terrorist Khan enter the US. However, this explanation
does not make sense because Khan has been visiting the US for many
years.
With his 2009 detention and subsequent embarrassment for
the US authorities, some effort ought to have been made to ensure that
red flags do not go up against his passport number and fingerprint
again. Every visitor to the US and even permanent residents are fully
fingerprinted on arrival every time. It is hard to comprehend why
specific names attached to specific fingerprints and passport numbers
cannot be exempted.
This time around though, the explanation
could be that he arrived at a much smaller airport and by a private jet
and managed to trigger the same action. The officials at White Plains,
which is also known as the Westchester County Airport, had no choice
once the red flags went up but to subject him to the standard
procedures.
On the face of it, it may be compelling to argue that
even a simple Google search, which shows 43,700,000 results against
Khan's name, should have at the very least made the detaining officer
question his action and taken much less than nearly two hours to clear
him. Such a Google search should have stopped any reasonable immigration
officer in their tracks to wonder that for a terrorist, Khan has
managed a fantastic cover of being one of the world's biggest movie
stars. Unfortunately though, the security parameters have been
consciously designed not to adhere to standards of commonsense. They
have been designed to be intrusive, as a result of which they do become
excessive from time to time.
Perhaps behind creating a security
system that depends as much on brute and random logic as intelligent
sifting was the deeply embarrassing case of Mohammad Atta, the
ringleader of the 9/11 terror attacks. In 2005, Navy Captain Scott J.
Phillpott, who was in charge of the Pentagon's counterterrorism project
codenamed 'Able Danger', created a stir when he said that in January
2000 his team had identified Atta as a member of a Al-Qaeda terror cell
operating in Brooklyn, New York. And yet Atta was able to travel in and
out of the US unmolested. Atta's lapse was attributed to the fact that
he first went by part of his name as Mohamed el-Amir and eventually
traveled to the US in June 2000 as Mohammed Atta.
Security experts
say that the random selection parameter is designed to make preventive
determination more effective. They acknowledge that one of the negative
fallouts is that many innocent people get singled out because of this
parameter.
(Mayank Chhaya is a US-based writer and commentator. He can be contacted at m@mayankchhaya.net)