Shah Rukh's detention in an American Airport and Emraan Hasmi's not getting a house in Suburban Mumbai is a story which might have been blown out of propotion by the India but never the less points out to some truths which must have been missed.
I have no doubt that SRK overplayed the incident just a little bit. His comments that he was detained because he was an Asian was lurid to say the least. To my mind every modern nation has a right to safeguard it's territorial integrity and national security. It should not be compromised and the country has every right to interrogate and question anybody they find as suspect. Mind you there is a thin line between Interrogation and Harassment but then it should be left to authorities to decide where is that line. The solution we have is to avoid such countries/nation in case we find the attitude demeaning and the actions deplorable.
Shah Rukh could have done just that. He could have been more patient and rather speaking to media directly from NY and making comments that " How he wished he was in India on 15th August". SRK is one of the finest Bollywood Actors to have emerged from India in the past decade or so and is hugely popular in all parts of the Globe more so much in United States.. Making an issue of out of nothing seems stupid and leaves us in a bad taste more so when one of his movies "My Name is Khan" is coming which seems to be taking on that subject only.
Emraan Hashmi pretence that he was not sold a property just because he was a Muslim needs to be discussed in much more detail. This is not the first time a member of his community has been denied such thing. Shabhana Azmi and Dia Mirza are all past victims of this issue.
But this issue is much larger than what has Emraan has gone through. After 9/11 there has been a general caution among people when they get to deal with others. It is not that most of the people who follow Islam are wrong but there is no two ways that most of the terrorism emerges out of that. Mindless people who have lost track of the very faith they were brought up to name it as Jihad and continue acts of violence and barbarism. Islam the second largest faith in the world and one of the most divine stands at cross roads today.
I recently met one of my close friends who was about to sell his car. He resisted the better deal from a member of that community just because he was not sure about the background of that person. Prevention is better than cure is an age old virtue and people just abide by that when dealing with that community. There is no way you can justify these acts of the majority community but I do not see a reason to blame them either.
Individuals have a right to do what they want to do and there should not be any force letting me decide what should I do and what i should not. We live in open society which gives us the right to speak, write and do what the individual wants to do. Till the time that act does not hurt or is meant to hurt I do not see any reason why an individual should be questioned or penalised.
The two incidents how ever isolated point to the general level suspicion in the mind of the people around and there is nothing except Time which will act as the Best Healer. We need to wait and watch and give space to others rather than pointing fingers.
