US defends TV host's `satirical' comments on Golden Temple

Jan 24, 2012 |

washington

IANS

Tags:

Golden_Temple_India.jpg.crop_display.jpg

The US has come to the defence of US television host Jay Leno and said the visual of Golden Temple in Amritsar during The Tonight Show was a 'satirical' reference to Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's vacation home.

"While the US had 'absolute respect' for the people of India, including Sikhs, The Tonight Show host's comments 'are constitutionally' protected in the United States under free speech", State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters on Monday.

The US, she said, had so far 'had not had any communications from the Indian government' on the controversial comments that have angered the Sikh community in the US which has launched an online petition against Leno.

Asked about the US government's stand on the issue, Nuland said: "Well, I think that Mr. Leno would be appreciative - I hope he'll be appreciative - if we make the point that his comments are constitutionally protected in the United States under free speech, and frankly, they appear to be satirical in nature."

"But from a US official government perspective, we have absolute respect for all the people of India, including Sikhs here, there," she said.

Noting that President Barack Obama was the first president ever to host a celebration in honour of the first Sikh guru Guru Nanak, Nuland said "our view is, obviously, that Sikh Americans have contributed greatly to the United States".

Visiting Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi had Sunday asked the Indian Ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao to take up with the State Department the issue, featured on Leno's show on Thursday.

"It is quite unfortunate and quite objectionable that such a comment has been made after showing the Golden Temple," Ravi told Indian reporters here.

"The Golden Temple is Sikh community's most sacred place. Even our prime minister went there for praying in the New Year. I believe that the person who has shown it is not that ignorant. The American government should also look at this kind of thing," Ravi had said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/121702" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-4309c27c86eff0bcc429e86fae5fdfb2" value="form-4309c27c86eff0bcc429e86fae5fdfb2" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85619527" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>