Frisking unwarranted

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav was right to have got the New York reception cancelled to protest his senior colleague Mohammad Azam Khan’s frisking at the logan International Airport in Boston. 

Mr Azam Khan’s frisking was unwarranted, given that he holds a diplomatic passport and was part of Mr Yadav’s team which had been invited to speak at the Harvard University on the successful management and conduct of the Maha Kumbh 2013 at Allahabad.

However, the ‘frisking’ is not a one-off incident. In the not-too-distant past, former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam, Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan and former Union Minister George Fernandes too were subjected to frisking at various US airports. In 2010, the then Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, was frisked at a US airport. The Government must take a serious view of this incident and lodge a strong protest.