The Hindu : Front Page : Kamal Nath concerned over racist remarks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 18, 2007
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Front Page

Kamal Nath concerned over racist remarks

Staff Reporter

Shilpa Shetty

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BANGALORE: Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath expressed India's sensitivities on the reported racist remarks made against film actress Shilpa Shetty in a British television reality show.

Mr. Nath said any discrimination, most of all racist, had to be condemned. "I told Mr. Gordon Brown [U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer] that we do react very sensitively to this episode," he told presspersons on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit 2007 here, where Mr. Brown was a keynote speaker.

The Minister said he was confident that the British society itself would respond to the televised racist remarks as it was against the very grain of social norms.

Britain's condemnation

Britain on Wednesday condemned the alleged racist attacks on Ms. Shetty saying it wished to be seen as a "country of tolerance".

Noting that there had been nearly 10,000 complaints from viewers about the remarks against Ms. Shetty , Mr. Brown said, "I want Britain to be seen round the world as a country of fairness and a country of tolerance."

Mr. Brown said he condemned "any behaviour that would detract from the view of Britain ... that we want to be a nation of fairness and tolerance."

PTI reports from Delhi:

The Bollywood starlet's mother said her decision to take part in the reality TV show was not a brave one.

"As a mother I did not think it was a very courageous decision of her wanting to sit in a fish bowl and be watched 24 hours. As a film star, she does not need to do it," Sunanda Shetty told NDTV. She said that as a film celebrity her daughter gets a completely different treatment in India.

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