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Rahat Fateh Ali Khan–another target of Indian bigotry
According to Bharati offcials, Rahat Fateh Ali was formally arrested and he would be produced in court today (Monday). He was shifted to revenue office.The detention of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, heir to the legacy of legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, spread like wildfire in Pakistan and was the lead story in almost all Pakistani TV channels in their prime time bulletins. According to press reports Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was arrested in Delhi for attempting to take one 100,000 Dollars cash to Pakistan. He had earned this one in his concerts. Media reports inform us that the Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik Sunday has directed the country’s High Commissioner in India to extend consular support to singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. Khan was detained at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on charges of carrying undisclosed money.
We met Rahat Fateh Ali Khan at an exclusive gathering in the US. At the time this scion of the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was not very popular and was a struggling artist trying to claw up the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s throne. What surprised me, was that at the end of the private gathering, he began complaining about his penury and was in awe of the Bharati establishment and opportunities presented in Bharat. Several years later, I met him again in the US this time at a rather large concert. He went the same route. Obvioiusly his “dallar kee talash” has taken him across the borer just like Adnan Sami Khan and Shakeel the comedian. The Dollars he earned in Delhi has now put him in trouble with the law–pretty soon the Hindu Mahasabah will jump into the picture and begin opposing him.
The Saffron Brigade had actually pulled Shakkel off the stage and told him to leave Bharat. The vendetta against Adnan Sami Khan was ore subtle–but in the end he had to leave without his property and without his money.
These are the fruits of “aman kee asha”.
The famous Ghazal and Qawwali musical traditions of the subcontinent have a long and rich legacy of talented Muslim artistes, including internationally acclaimed Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Several of his hit songs from Indian films are a rage on both sides of the border, for which he has won several awards, including the recent Filmfare award for ‘Dil to Bacha Hai Jee’from the movie Ishqiya. The 37-year-old, nephew of Pakistani singing legend Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was earlier too involved in a controversy when organisers of a concert in Gurgaon filed a police complaint against him in July last year for his failure to turn up for a show.
Rahat’s brother-in-law, Asim Raza, told a local TV channel that they ‘received information from the media and were feeling concerned about it’. ‘We are yet to establish any proper contact with the authorities in India although Rahat talked briefly with his wife and asked her to remain hopeful of a positive outcome’.
Rahat, part of the Khan family and the nephew of Nusrat, is popular both in all of South Asia, in India and Pakistan, and in the South Asian diaspora around the world.
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