14 DAY TRIAL // Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, also dubbed SRK or simply King Khan for being one of the most popular and beloved stars of his generation, is now caught in a spat between India and Pakistan officials, after writing a newspaper account of his visit to New Delhi.
Though he probably only aimed to recall his experience there for his readers, Khan caused heated exchanges between politicians from the two countries, MSN News Canada reports.
In the article, the actor wrote that his stay in New Delhi made him “the inadvertent object of political leaders who choose to make me a symbol of all that they think is wrong and unpatriotic about Muslims in India.”
In response, Rehman Malik, Interior prime minister of Pakistan, went on the official channels to suggest that more security measures would be in order in New Delhi – saying that Khan’s experience was the best argument in favor of them.
As was to be expected, his plea echoed with Indian officials, though not in the way he might have expected.
Manish Tewari, Information and Broadcasting minister in India, responded by saying, more or less, that Pakistan needs to mind its own business before making suggestions of this kind.
“Malik would be better served bothering about the internal situation in Pakistan and introspecting about the minorities there,” Tewari said.
“Let him (Malik) worry about the security of his country's security,” India’s Home Secretary R.K. Singh chimed in.
Before Malik even got a chance to fight back, the actor stepped in to clear the air on one thing: he never meant to sound as if he was complaining in the article that started it all.
‘[I didn’t] even vaguely say that I am ungrateful for the love I have received in a career spanning 20 years. On the contrary, the article says that in spite of the bigoted thoughts of some of the people that surround us, I am untouched by skeptics because of the love I have received from my countrymen and women,” he said.