Cancellation of Harvard lecture, a loss for US people: Azam

American people have missed out on an opportunity to gain from the experience of Uttar Pradesh government in organising "Mahakumbh", said state minister Azam Khan, who cut short his visit to the US after being detained at the Boston airport last month.
"The real loss because of their behaviour has been that of America whose people had wanted to know how the Mahakumbh was organised and crowd was managed... We have been hailed and praised by the 125 crore people," Khan today said on the sidelines of release of e-book on SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav written by his younger brother and state minister Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav boycotted the Harvard lecture he was due to deliver in protest against Khan's detention at the Boston airport.
The minister recounted the manner in which he was singled out in the team led by the Chief Minister to the US.
He also lashed out at the manner in which the country had "meekly accepted" the treatment meted out to former president A P J Abdul Kalam and former Union minister George Fernandes in the US.
"The entire country should have reacted when its president had been humiliated rather than sitting like cowards", he said, adding it is difficult to understand how he spent 35 minutes of insult and humiliation at the airport.

Meanwhile, PWD and irrigation minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, who has been invited by Johns Hopkins University US to deliver a lecture on flood control, today said that he will not undertake the visit.