After a Pakistani minister expressed concern over the safety of
Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and asked India to give him
adequate security, the actor said on Tuesday, "I would like to
tell all those who are offering me unsolicited advice that we in
India are extremely safe and happy. We have an amazing
democratic, free and secular way of life."
The controversy over one of India's biggest and most adored
celebrities is rooted in a magazine article he wrote last week
titled 'Being a Khan'.
Rejecting the debate it has spawned as "nonsense", the actor
said at a press conference in Mumbai, "I don't even
understand the basis of this controversy. Ironically, the article
I wrote - yes it is written by me - was actually meant to
reiterate that on some occasions my being an Indian Muslim
film star is misused by bigots and narrow-minded people who
have misplaced religious ideologies for very, very small gains.
And ironically the same has happened through this article once
again."
In the piece in Outlook Turning Point, the 47-year-old had
written, "There have been occasions when I have been
accused of bearing allegiance to our neighbouring nation rather
than my own country - this even though I am an Indian, whose
father fought for the freedom of India. Rallies have been held
where leaders have exhorted me to leave and return what
they refer to my original homeland."
In reaction, over the weekend, Jamaat-ud Dawa chief Hafiz
Saeed, who India holds responsible for its worst-ever terror
attack, said the star could move to Pakistan. Pakistani Interior
Minister Rehman Malik said yesterday, "He (Shah Rukh) is born
Indian and he would like to remain Indian, but I will request
the government of India (to) please provide him security."
The Indian government was cutting in its response.
"We are quite capable of looking after the security of our own
citizens... let him (Malik) worry about security of his own,"
Home Secretary RK Singh told reporters in New Delhi.
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