Pakistani singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was detained at Delhi airport after his 15-member troupe was found to have over $100,000 in their possession,undeclared to customs authorities. He was grilled for over 20 hours by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence,his managers and relatives homes were raided,and his passport has been impounded until the issue is resolved. He was initially even denied consular service. He has now got a conditional release,but the incident has shown up the inherent overkill in these cases. Carrying undeclared cash of this kind is a garden-variety civil law infringement,and one that comes and should come with strong financial penalties. And while the law does give the authorities the option to detain the offender,must it be used as a matter of course,even when there is little chance of the offender fleeing the law? But it is not as though Khan,as a foreign citizen,is being singled out for flouting excise law. This is a longstanding pattern at our airports in mid-2009,businesswoman Sheetal Mafatlal was arrested for carrying more jewellery than is allowed,and the incident was turned into a tidy parable about the moral bankruptcy of wealth. Before her,it was Pune builder Avinash Bhosale and former managing director of Escorts,Anil Nanda,who were hauled up for carrying undeclared high-value items including a diamond-studded watch. Evading customs is an infraction,it costs the state,and it must come with hefty penalties. But it doesnt need to be turned into theatre,an opportunity for a little official swagger and lessons in civic responsibility. We need to examine whether acts like this need to be answered with such brutal shaming. All crimes are not created equal and while Rahat Fateh Ali Khans detention was backed up by provisions in the Customs Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act,perhaps application of the rule-book itself needs a rethink. Too often,incidents of this kind are accompanied by the harsh possibility of humiliation (compounded when the individual is famous or visible in some way,so that the customs authorities have a chance to grab the headlines) when simply allowing the law to take its course should suffice.
