Dt:17 Feb,2010
Recently there was a huge uproar in the nation after Shah Rukh Khan's admission that he wished to have Pakistani cricketers play for his IPL team the KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS.Subsequently that lead to huge protests from the ShivSena(political party based prominently in Mumbai).The Shiv Sena decided to prevent screening of SRK's movie My Name is Khan in the state.That in turn prompted the Congress Government to provide king size security to the theatres to get the movie released peacefully.Eventually they managed to get the movie released admist continuous comments from political leaders of all parties.But somewhere in between this whole episode lost its real significance and purpose.Let us try to anlayze this political circus from a neutral perspective.
We are all fans of SRK the actor .Over the years SRK has managed to gain my respect as an actor by providing stellar performances in movies like Swades,Chak De India.But his commentary on issues not related to him have always been flamboyant and sometimes uncalled for.So when the IPL teams did not pick up any Pakistani players in the open auction it was evident to all that there was some reason for not doing so and it had nothing to do with cricket as such(probably nothing to do with the Goevrnmant also).Once that was evident ,everyone sympthasized with Pakistani cricketers and let that episode go by.It was only later that Chidambaram pointed out that the government had not issued directives to IPL to do so just to clear the Government's name.
Now when everyone was clear as to what had happened there was no reason for SRK to raise that issue again and give a public comment on that.The nation does not have a problem with people from any where in the world coming here to play games , as long as they dont send fellows to play blood games in India or play blood games with Indians in their country.That cannot be tolerated and that is precisely why cricketers from across borders were not welcome.
SRK had previously asked Gavaskar to shut his mouth when he had commented on multiple captain theory in KKR.Now Gavaskar is one of the greats of the game and SRK needs to understand that being a superstar doesn't give him the rights to insult other greats or for that matter insult national sentiments.Now that they attacked PUNE and killed innocent people ,we want to know what does SRK feel about this incident as an Indian.I am not questioning his loyalty to India,don't get me wrong but why cant you now stand up talk for the nation that you respect,for the same people who are your biggest fans.
But he wont stand up for this issue nor will he comment now because that doesn't concern him.No one has questioned him now .His film has released to packed audiences in India and also across borders.People went out in support to watch the film but no one commented on the fact that his comments were uncalled for.
Shiv Sena had a valid issue but their mode of protest meant that they lost both the plot and peoples support.Today no ones talking about what SRK said but only about how people defied the Sena.
As always in poltics of the nation the real issue has been lost somewhere whilst parties try to sum up their political gains.
