India’s ambassador in Washington and foreign minister in New Delhi are outraged with U.S. officials for detaining India’s biggest film star for about 90 minutes at a New York airport late last week.
The State Department and U.S. Customs authorities apologized profusely, but India remains angered by the treatment of Shah Rukh Khan, who was traveling to Connecticut to address students at Yale University. Mr. Khan also was delayed and questioned at another U.S. airport three years ago.
“The policy of detention and apology by the U.S. cannot continue,” Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna said Friday. “Apologies from America have become mechanical.”
Ambassador Nirupama Rao said she protested Mr. Khan’s treatment to the State Department after learning that customs officials had questioned him Thursday when he arrived on a private plane at an airport in White Plains, N.Y.
“It is not merely our concern, but the concern of the whole nation, which we sought to convey to the State Department and the U.S. authorities so that they understand the depth of the concern that was expressed by us,” she told reporters in New York over the weekend.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner expressed the Obama administration’s “utmost respect for Mr. Khan and his work, both as an artist and a humanitarian.” He also apologized for “any discomfort or inconvenience he may have suffered as a result of this incident.”
Mr. Toner insisted that Mr. Khan was “delayed,” not “detained,” and denied that racial profiling was involved.
Mr. Khan, a 46-year-old Muslim, was “very, very upset” by his treatment, according to the Times of India.
He arrived at Yale about three hours late and told students about the incident.
“Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America. The immigration guys kick the star out of stardom,” said the actor known in India as the “King of Bollywood.”
Mr. Khan has performed in more than 70 films; one of his most famous is the 2010 movie “My Name is Khan,” about a Muslim man facing discrimination as he travels through the United States.
DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC
Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:
Monday
• Defense Minister Fatmir Besimi of Macedonia, who meets with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.
• Gen. Tanasak Patimapakorn, chief of Thailand’s defense forces, who meets with Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• Shintaro Ishihara, governor of Tokyo, who addresses the Heritage Foundation on U.S.-Japanese relations.
Tuesday
• Zsolt Nemeth, deputy foreign minister of Hungary, who addresses a Hungarian Embassy commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swiss diplomat who saved hundreds of Hungarian Jews in World War II.
Wednesday
• Moushira Khattab, former Egyptian ambassador to South Africa and to the Czech and Slovak republics, and former minister of Egypt’s Department of Family and Population; Hala Al Gergawi of the Abu Dhabi Media Co. in the United Arab Emirates; Aisha Abdullah Al-Kharusi of the National Bank of Oman; and Mawahib Shaibani, CEO of the Gulf and the Middle East, Art of Living Foundation, United Arab Emirates. They address the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
• Djoomart Otorbaev, vice prime minister for economics and investment in Kyrgyzstan. He addresses the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
Friday
• Ignacio Deschamps, CEO of BBVA Bancomer, Mexico’s largest commercial bank, who speaks at George Washington University.
• Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and now undersecretary-general and executive director of U.N. Women, who addresses the Women’s Foreign Policy Group.
• Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee of India, who addresses the Peterson Institute for International Economic.
• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com. The column is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
• James Morrison can be reached at jmorrison@washingtontimes.com.
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