So What?

Hi All,

A national calamity has befallen our nation. We have been wronged and humiliated. Our existence has been questioned and eminent citizens of our country, all of a sudden, suffer from trust deficit.

This would be the conclusion anyone would have come to if he/she had watched the media coverage following SRK's 'detention' at Newark Airport on Saturday. It was as if his detention was as important,if not more, as the day itself. Clippings of Independence day celebrations took a back seat to SRK's 'ordeal' speech! As all of you are aware the issue is still raging on with some celebrities and many politicians coming in support of SRK while the rest dismissing it as yet another publicity stunt for his latest movie. (Coincidentally(?) his upcoming movie also deals with similar incidents).

Now let me come straight to the point. I am angry and disappointed in equal measure with the media and the person in question,SRK. The media went into frenzy mode when the news first broke out and many channels started airing voice clippings of SRK speaking out on the issue. The constant barrage of the 'sufferings' of SRK made me feel obnoxious enough to switch off the idiot box and let the dust settle. After portraying SRK as a fallen hero, now some sections of the media wish to occupy the moral high ground and question the reactions subsequent to SRK's detention and ask what is all the fuss about!

SRK on his part did all he could to make this incident into that of racial profiling and garnered, to a great extent, lots of sympathies from the general public who probably saw this as yet another attempt of humiliation of one of their kind. To make matters worse, he even disclosed the reasons provided by the authorities for detaining him knowing fully well that these very reasons could flare up emotions back home. The least he could have done, in my opinion, is to downplay the incident and brush it aside like Abdul Kalam.

Now i ask, SO WHAT? So what if SRK is questioned. So what if he made to sit in a room for a couple of hours and made to answer a few uncomfortable questions. Is he above the law? Couldn't he have been the one of those randomly chosen people to undergo further screening? What about all those Indians who have been subject to outright profiling? Why hasn't the Indian media spoken up against this practice,with the same amount of intensity shown for this incident, in the past?

I wish to clarify that i am not condoning racial profiling. On the other hand, like all good people of this country, i condemn it outright. But we(media, public and the concerned persons) should stop reacting in a knee jerk manner every time an Indian is questioned or frisked and put all sorts of theory behind the incident. Rather we should look at it objectively.