The importance of being Shah Rukh Khan

The United States has a policy of subjecting all foreign nationals with suspicious sounding names to a very close body scan, check. I do not endorse this policy and so I choose not to travel to the USA. I was educated there and have had a few invitations to lecture in some rather good Universities. Not Yale, of course. Shah Rukh Khan who made a film about the US preoccupation with security called My Name is Khan make it a habit to travel to the US and he gets hauled up at the Airport and he makes the whole country i. e. India believe that the prestige of India is damaged because of the security check he undergoes. The US State Department issues a perfunctory "apology" and the matter forgotten until the next episode of Shah Rukh Kan at the US airport. I think this third rate India actor should realize that he neither represents Muslims nor India and the US immigration officials are only doing their job and if he has any issues with it he can just refuse to travel to the USA and cause such a huge embarrassment to the country. He is only a private citizen and when the Government of India bends backward to assuage his ruffled sensitivities, the country is outraged.Shah Rukh Khan can stay at home and smoke his cigarettes and keep out of trouble both for himself and the country. I think it is high time India said that Shah Rukh Khans of the world are not representatives of India and if Airport authorities detain him for questioning, then they are only doing the job for which they are paid. India has evolved a VIP culture and USA is still by and large free from that taint. In India Shah Rukh Khan can strut about and Indians will applaud him. Fortunately Americans are not enamored of the VIP culture.