Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The response to Azam Khans frisking at a US airport is disproportionate and telling
Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan has returned miffed from an almost momentary detention in the US,spluttering that Union Minister Salman Khurshid had arranged for his humiliation in Bostons Logan International Airport. The senior Samajwadi Party leader seems to believe that homeland security answers to the urgings of the Indian minister for external affairs. This faith in his powers is excessive. Homeland security runs on protocols known only to itself,which often impel its officers to repeatedly force their attentions on visiting dignitaries who cannot possibly be security risks. The choice of victims appears to be arbitrary,or the frisking of president Abdul Kalam in 2011 would be inexplicable. If no malice is intended,no offence should be taken. Besides,this happened in Boston,the site of the marathon bombing,the first successful attack in the US since 9/11. And yet the incident,in which his minister was taken aside for questioning,appears to have motivated UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,projected as his partys young and modern face,to cancel a lecture at Harvard University and a reception organised by the Indian consulate in New York City.
With colleagues like these,Azam Khans incredulity at being taken aside by a security official seems perfectly natural. But not his conviction that Salman Khurshid remote-controlled a homeland security grilling in order to have him insulted in distant places. That sounds like paranoia.
