Richard Gere's Indian Arrest Warrant Suspended

NEW DELHI — Richard Gere is free to go back to India _ and he may have a new reason to book a trip.

India's top court suspended an arrest warrant Friday against Gere, wanted for allegedly breaking public obscenity laws by kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at a public AIDS awareness event last year.

"Gere is allowed to come and leave. He can't be arrested," said Anil Grover, an attorney for Shetty, after attending the Supreme Court proceedings.

Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice R. V. Raveendran indefinitely stayed the arrest warrant issued against the actor last year by a court in the northwestern Indian city of Jaipur, Grover told The Associated Press.

Gere embraced and kissed Shetty on her cheek at the public AIDS awareness event in New Delhi on April 15 last year, prompting Hindu hard-liners to allege the pair had offended the sensibilities of India's traditionally conservative culture. Hindu activists filed three cases against Gere and Shetty last year, including one in Jaipur.

Shortly after the cases were filed by Hindu activists, Gere apologized for any offense he may have caused, but he also said the whole controversy was manufactured by a small hard-line political party.

The 58-year-old Buddhist actor and longtime Tibetan supporter is a frequent visitor to India, promoting health issues and the cause of Tibetan exiles, tens of thousands of whom live in India.

His publicist, Alan Nierob, said in an e-mail Friday to The Associated Press that Gere would have no comment on the matter. However, Gere did tell CNN he wasn't surprised protests led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in Tibet turned violent Friday.

"When you repress the people, they will explode," Gere told CNN. "All people will explode."

Eyewitness accounts and photos posted on the Internet portrayed a chaotic scene in Lhasa, the provincial capital, with crowds hurling rocks at security forces, hotels and restaurants. The U.S. Embassy said Americans had reported gunfire. U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported two people killed.

Gere told the cable news network that "this is a time to be very clear with the Chinese."

"If you want to be a world power, you must behave in a certain way. This is not appropriate," said Gere, who co-founded the Tibet House and is board chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Comments

[baldblackman]

11:25 AM on 03/15/2008

Imagine, if it was Denzil Washington that kissed Shilpa Shetty?

[Vexed]

06:32 PM on 03/14/2008

FINALLY! I'll be able to sleep night.

[robXdion]

01:40 PM on 03/14/2008

He thought he was still in America and could just smooch a minority female at will. Richard better recognize that alpha-male white guy crap doesn't play well everywhere. In India, he almost became the beneficiary of a 1920s style American lynching.

[BlackWidowPilot]

04:40 PM on 03/14/2008

Rob,

This wasn't some perverted "alpha-male white guy crap," and you know it. Those "obscenity laws" in India are *obscene* for any decent democracy to dare to keep on the books. The "crime" was *kissing in public," nothing more than that. It would apply equally to me (a willing participant) kissing my Significantly Better Half (ie., a willing participant).

The Hindu hardliners are a bunch of religious extremists akin to our own televangelists like Hagee or Phelps, loudmouthed wackos with a political axe to grind. They're the same bunch that periodically gets embroiled in deadly religious riots with Muslims over whatever petty dispute happens to erupt between their communities (last one I read about was over the religious significance and ownership of a *tree* growing between two neighborhoods).

Gere has done more for Tibetan exiles -people of colour- than either of us put together.

I suggest that you remember the admonition from a certain brown-skinned man who admonished his followers not to seek the mote in the other person's eye, and to judge not, lest they be judged by the same harsh measurement.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[robXdion]

06:24 PM on 03/14/2008

Well Leland,

I see that struck a nerve and you took it quite personally. And while you try to quote Jesus, you should know neither Gere or the people involved are Christians. And while you're at it, you should recognize that East Indians are among the most insular and xenophobic people on the planet.

So you should remember this reality; to many cultures regardless of employing them, etc. you still have no right to manhandle their women. Just as some men in your culture might feel upset, disgruntled, or peeved at the reverse situation. And I correctly pointed put how "men of color" in THIS country died by that at the rate of more than 1 per day throughout the early part of the 20th century. They have their laws their, but they went after Gere with a serious zeal that belies the typical offender. Gee, now WHY is that?

Now I know what my Lord and Saviour teaches, my friend. I also know the particulars of American thought and assumptions. And I know better than to agitate others when I am in their land. You judge a situation, not the person.

Rob
US Marine and Citizen

[wm1066]

11:46 AM on 03/14/2008

This whole thing was political, and it shows how little support the hindu nationalists have. That said, had I been standing next to that woman I would have wanted to do just what Richard did.
Go Richard Gere!
Keep up your support for Tibet.