File picture of Azam Khan
Taking a different stand from his party, Uttar Pradesh minister Devender Gupta today said there was nothing wrong if his cabinet colleague Azam Khan was frisked at a US airport.
The UP minister for solar energy said that even former President APJ Abdul Kalam was frisked last year and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was detained for over two hours at a New York airport.
"Who is Azam in front of them," asked Mr Gupta. He was here to attend a meeting of traders this afternoon.
Frisking at airports was a practice exercised to ensure safety in the US, and as per their rules, Azam was rightly subjected to it, he said.
Azam Khan, a senior leader of the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh and also the Urban Development minister of the state, was detained for about 10 minutes at the Boston airport for "further questioning" after he landed in a scheduled British Airways flight from India.
Samajwadi Party today said the detention of Azam Khan at a US airport was fallout of a "weak" foreign policy of the country.
"The US should be told that such discriminatory actions would henceforth not be tolerated," a spokesman of the party said.