Leno's golden temple joke upsets India

India will take up with the US authorities a joke by popular TV host Jay Leno in which he said the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, was a summer home for wealthy presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

India will take up with the US authorities a joke by popular TV host Jay Leno in which he said the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, was a summer home for wealthy presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

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"The late night talk shows are flippant most of the time in the US," external affairs minister SM Krishna said.

He, however, said the ministry would ask the Indian ambassador to take up the issue with the US authorities.

In a dig at Romney's privileged background during his The Tonight Show, Leno used a photo of the Sikh shrine in a segment on the vacation homes of Republican presidential candidates. The joke has angered the Sikh community in the US.