Azam Khan mustn’t play politics with security
Senior Uttar Pradesh Minister Mohammad Azam Khan has sought to create an unnecessary fuss over his brief detention and questioning at the Boston logan International Airport when he recently visited the US along with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. The two had gone there in connection with a symposium on South Asia at Harvard University, where the Chief Minister was to present a study on the successful conduct of the world's single largest congregation, the Kumbh Mela, in Allahabad. The tantrum that Mr Khan threw at the airport at being supposedly slighted, was his way to exploit the minority vote-bank sentiments back in Uttar Pradesh. The Minister has lost no time in claiming that US authorities had picked on him because he is a Muslim and that America has an anti-Muslim bias.
If Mr Khan indeed is of the opinion that the US is against the Muslims, he should not have even made the trip. The fact of the matter is that, from all available reports, the Immigration officials at the airport had extended great courtesy to Mr Khan during the questioning and even helped him with the documentation process. later, another official took him aside and queried him again. This reportedly raised the Minister's hackles and he began shouting at the official. The officer then said firmly that she would file a complaint against him for obstructing her from performing her duty, part of which was to follow the procedures of Homeland Security.
Mr Khan appeared to have forgotten in the heat of the moment that he was not in Uttar Pradesh where he is known to throw his weight around and insult senior officials of the bureaucracy if they fail to toe his line. He is a non-entity in the US and should have followed the rules of the game that exist there. The unfortunate fall-out of the episode is that Mr Yadav had to cancel his presentation to express solidarity with his ruffled senior colleague. That Mr Khan is forever looking for an occasion to play the minority card was also evident at the time of his departure from India to the US. He reportedly shouted at a security official who tried to stop a Samajwadi Party leader from entering the VIP lounge at the airport in Delhi.
According to information, he castigated the security personnel for being biased against people who wore a ‘kurta and sported a beard’ — yet another thinly-veiled reference to Muslims. And now, Mr Khan has recklessly blamed Union Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid for the incident at the US airport, which he terms as a “conspiracy”. He is giving too much credit to Mr Khurshid; after all, the External Affairs Minister cannot, even if he wants to, influence the security procedures at US airports.
All this is not to say that the United States has not been guilty of going overboard with what has become racial profiling, particularly after 9/11. The former Indian President and a well-known face internationally, Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, was once asked to de-board a flight for further frisking. While that was outrageous conduct by US officials at the airport, Mr Kalam did not kick up a row and rave and rant about being targeted because he is a Muslim. Popular film star Shah Rukh Khan and many others too have had to go through similar unpleasantness. Mr Azam Khan’s conduct is hardly likely to change the American perception.
