Facing the music

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.

Curated For You

Shark Tanks Ritesh Agarwal reacts to Virat Kohli choosing a Rs 2,058 cr Indian sportswear company over Pumas Rs 300 cr deal: This is a sign that

Im not joking: Google engineer stunned after AI coding tool builds in 1 hour what her team spent a year on

Anurag Kashyap heaps praise on Dhurandhar while disagreeing with its politics: Aditya Dhar is a Kashmiri Pandit who has suffered