Sania Mirza is an apt ambassador for Telangana

Sania Mirza

In India, political leaders often make baseless allegations to run down opponents. But even by their low standards, Telangana BJP leader K Laxman’s statement that tennis star Sania Mirza cannot be appointed as the new state’s ambassador because she is the “daughter-in-law of Pakistan” is objectionable. Mr Laxman was protesting against the K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) government’s decision to appoint Ms Mirza, who is married to former Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, as the ambassador to promote the state nationally and internationally. The objection is nothing but a desperate attempt to fan jingoistic passions and make political capital out of it. The government is well within its rights to appoint anyone it deems fit to further the name and brand value of the state. A prime example of this is Gujarat, which has appointed actor Amitabh Bachchan as the brand ambassador of Gujarat Tourism though he is not a resident of the state. Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan is the brand ambassador of West Bengal.
The view that Ms Mirza was appointed by the KCR government to appease the minority community in view of the coming elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation shows is stretching things a bit. It also shows the disrespect the politician — hopefully not the state unit of the party he represents — has for a sportsperson of Ms Mirza’s stature. The player received the Arjuna Award in 2004 and the Padma Shri in 2006 and has made India proud on many occasions. Ms Mirza is also the first Indian woman to win two Grand Slams, she won four gold medals at the 2003 Afro-Asian Games, six medals from three Asian Games, and two at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games. Her career-best ranking of 27 in singles and five in doubles is the highest for an Indian woman in tennis.
Telangana is a new state and for its progress it not only needs an efficient government but also a responsible opposition. Even though it just has five MLAs in the 119-member assembly, the BJP in Telangana must work towards the development of the state and not create a storm in a teacup.

Politicians are not above the law — Boston showed that to Azam Khan

In what can be only seen as a new high — or low — in political paranoia UP urban development minister Azam Khan has said that his detention at the Boston Logan International Airport late last week was a conspiracy hatched by external affairs minister Salman Khurshid to defame him outside India. The detention — which according to some media reports was for about 10 minutes — ruffled a lot of feathers in the UP government. Reacting to it UP chief minister Akilesh Yadav cancelled his talk at Harvard University and also chose to skip a reception hosted by the Indian consul general at New York. Thus what should have been a routine security check has been blow out of proportion and the Samajwadi Party is chasing a phantom of its own imagination. Anyone who has travelled to the United States, Europe or even Israel will list out the inconvenient, and at times unpleasant, experiences of security checks one has to go through at the airports there. One cannot overlook the positives of being extra cautious, especially at times when the organisations and people with bad intentions are getting innovative by the day.
Azam Khan is missing the woods for the trees in his charge that he was singled out because he was a member of a particular religious community and was thus unfairly targeted. Security checks, irrespective of race, religion, etc, are norms different countries adopt to ensure safety of its citizens. The UP minister is not the first person to be ‘humiliated’ in such a scenario. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and former Union minister George Fernadez was also subject to such security checks. Most notably, former president APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked at JFK airport in 2011. While Kalam played down the incident and was not irked about it, the leader from UP is in no mood see reason. Given that the Azam Khan incident — if at all a routine security measure can be called so — comes a few days after the Boston marathon bombings, one cannot find fault with the airport authorities if they were a wee bit extra cautious in their duty.
Winston Churchill, former British prime minister, had a point while saying “The price of greatness is responsibility” and responsibility, it seems, is a trait wanting in many of our netas. What seems to have been hurt in this process is the fragile ego of our leaders. Much used to having all doors being open and royal treatment being meted out — often to the discomfort of others —politicians find it below their standing to follow the rules. Such an attitude might pass off in India but there is no point in getting miffed when asked to comply by the laws when abroad. One would have thought that such measures would dawn upon our leaders the realisation that when it comes to security, no one is above the law. Is it too much to ask from our politicians?
(An edited version of this appeared in the Hindustan Times on April 30)