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| Time for 'zandu balm'? |
Why are Indians taking out morchas saying that the frisking of our ambassador to the US is an insult to India? I think they should object to headlines like ‘Indian envoy Meera Shankar patted down in US’. Seriously, it isn’t funny.
Some say it was because she was wearing a saree and everyone’s patriotism is frothing on placards. I think even the Pakistani former envoy used to wear a saree. So, Ms. Shankar is merely dressing in what she is comfortable and probably accustomed to rather than upholding Indian pride. She is on assignment and could be on the job in Tanzania or somewhere next.
The US airport security is supposedly following the rule books. I know we have complained about other prominent examples and it is time to question the prudence of diplomatic licence. If the US is extra vigilant, then I think every country ought to be. How did David Headley get in here? Wasn’t it the Indian embassy that gave him the visa? Forget this pat down ruckus and trying to make it into a women’s issue, which it is not. We all get ‘patted down’ in our own airports and with all the metal someone like me has on her person they find rather interesting places that are not even pat-downable.
If the VIPs do not want to go through the ‘insult’ then all countries must just insist on a separate enclosure. Let us not carry this ‘mai-baap’ attitude further. Had someone questioned her inappropriately or said something nasty about India, then we have every right to protest.
End quote:
“Our democracy has become a bit too noisy.” Pranab Mukherjee
I understand, Pranabda. When you find a silent democracy please let us know.
FV, The US ambassador is no ordinary Indian in the US. The point is that the vienna convention forbids countries like India from doing this to US ambassadors. So if the US can do this, India should too.
ReplyDeleteWe can all understand going through security checks as all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law. But this frisking of the Indian Amb. is wrong for the same reason US police cannot just break into the Chinese embassy in the USA -- they are both derived from the same international legal instrument. So if the US is saying the vienna convention is passe, then India should be ignoring those protocols too....one would think.
-Al
I agree that it should be applicable to all countries. And if it is an issue of protocol then street protests are hardly diplomacy.
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