By Joanna Sugden and Preetika Rana
- Getty Images
- Security officials stood guard at the Boston Logan International Airport, August 11, 2006.
Update: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Friday cancelled his Havard lecture to protest cabinet minister Mohammad Azam Khan’s detention at the Boston Logan International airport, a spokesman for Mr. Yadav’s party said. He “found it very insulting,” the spokesman, Rajendra Chaudhury, said. A note on Havard University’s website said the presentation was cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances.”
An Indian politician on the way to speak at an event at Harvard University was detained at Boston’s Logan Airport in the U.S. Wednesday, a spokesman for his party said.
Mohammad Azam Khan, minister for urban development in Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Samajwadi Party, was part of a delegation from the state invited to address Harvard’s South Asia Institute about the staging of the Kumbh Mela religious festival.
Rajendra Chaudhury, a spokesman for the Samajwadi Party, said Mr. Khan was detained “for some time” at the airport. He declined to elaborate. Reports said Mr. Khan was held for 10 minutes by immigration officials before being released without charge.
The minister said he was “humiliated, harassed and insulted” by U.S. authorities at the airport, in a statement issued by Mr. Khan’s press official, Khurshid Ahmed. Mr. Ahmed said that the 54-year-old minister was “very upset” by the incident.
Mr. Khan was accompanying Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for the Harvard event.
Muktinath Jha, additional private secretary to Mr. Khan, said he had spoken to the minister on the telephone after he was held at the airport. “He told me his sentiments have been deeply hurt,” Mr. Jha said.
Mr. Khan was traveling on a diplomatic passport, Mr. Jha added.
Reports said the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C. has taken the issue up with the U.S. State Department.
Spokesmen for the Indian Embassy in Washington or for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Mr. Khan is the latest high-profile Indian visitor to be subject to greater scrutiny on arrival in the U.S.
Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was held for questioning for two hours at New York’s White Plains Airport in April 2012. He was traveling to address students at Yale, another Ivy League University.
The U.S. embassy in Delhi apologized to former Indian president A. P. J. Abdul Kalam after he was frisked at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in November 2011.
In December 2010, the Indian ambassador to the U.S. was patted down by a security guard at a Mississippi airport, a move that was defended by officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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