Bollywood King Shahrukh Khan has exposed the so-called secular face of India, world’s largest democracy. Khan has expressed agony he is facing for being born as a Muslim.
Popularly known as SRK, Khan wrote an article, titled “Being a Khan,” for India-based Outlook Turning Points magazine. Khan said in the article that many politicians had asked him to go back to his native homeland: Pakistan, after 9/11 incident.
“I sometimes become the inadvertent object of political leadership that choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India.” Rallies have been held where leaders have exhorted me to leave and return, what they refer to my ‘original’ homeland.”
“I gave my son and daughter names that could pass for generic (pan-India and pan-religious) ones — Aryan and Suhana,” Shahrukh Khan said.
Khan said that he was pressed to make the film “My Name is Khan” to prove a point after being repeatedly detained in US airports because of his last name.
SRK has expressed the same fears that Indian Interior Minister Shinde said in Jaipur a few days back, when he accused, Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS of conducting “terror training camps” to spread saffron terrorism in India. — Babar Mumtaz, by email
My name is Khan and I’m not a traitor
