New Delhi: Amid the raging controversy over Shah Rukh Khan’s detention at a US airport, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Monday waded into the maze of swirling opinions by wondering what the fuss was all about.


Singh said Khan’s campaign on his treatment at a US airport may make people suspect it was a publicity stunt for his next movie My Name Is Khan. The SP leader said even millennium star Amitabh Bachchan was subjected to security-related checks in France, a country which has given him the highest civilian honour, and in Switzerland, but he never spoke about it. “There are two types of people in society—one, who make an issue out of an incident and another, who cooperates with procedures. Bachchan never blew it up. APJ Abdul Kalam, who is high in stature, was frisked in his own country but he kept quiet even though the whole country screamed over it,” Singh said.


Singh’s wading into the controversy seems his attempt to get even with King Khan with whom he has a history of bitterness. But the SP leader denied such a motive, saying there was no animosity between him and Khan and they were nowfriends. He said, “It is unfortunate the minorities are being targeted with suspicion but considering the plight of the US, it (security procedures) cannot be termed totally unjustified.” Specifying his objection to SRK’s actions, Singh said it would have been good if Khan had let people, as in the case of Kalam, make an issue of his airport detention than protest himself. TNN

THE TIMES OF INDIA (August 18, 2009)