19 December 2013, 01:27 PM IST
For once the normally weak-kneed Indian government has shown that Indians are equal to anyone in the world and cannot be treated as contemptible inferiors. Following the outrageous indignities that India's deputy consul general in New York City, Devyani Khobragade, was subjected to by the US law enforcement authorities – she was arrested and handcuffed while picking up her child from school, strip- searched, made to undergo body probes and put in a lock-up with drug addicts and criminals – New Delhi has not only registered a strong official protest but has retaliated by taking away many of the perks and privileges enjoyed by US diplomats here – such as special barricades at the American embassy in Delhi and ID cards which give diplomatic immunity to the family members of US staffers in India – which are not enjoyed by Indian diplomats in America.
What was Khobragade's 'crime' which called for such harsh treatment by the US authorities? She has been accused of 'visa fraud' on behalf of her Indian domestic helper in New York and of underpaying her by American standards, which is against US law.
Such charges do not merit the grossly offensive behaviour of the US marshals who reportedly took the Indian diplomat into custody.
New Delhi's prompt retaliatory response will be welcomed by all Indians, whether they belong to government services or not. But even as so-called common citizens' applauds our sarkar's strong stand against Uncle Sam's big-bully attitude, they might raise a couple of inconvenient questions.
It has already been asked if the government's muscle-flexing in the case is a pre-election gambit to correct its weak and indecisive image. This apart, there is a more fundamental question to be asked, which applies not only to this particular government but to all the governments that this country has had.
Whenever an incident of a real or imaginary insult to an Indian diplomat, or former diplomat, or a VIP, or a Bollywood celebrity takes place the government and the media come out all guns blazing, and in doing so tacitly assume and enlist the full support of common citizens.
But so-called common Indian citizens have routinely been subjected to all kinds of ill-treatment and humiliation by foreign immigration and other authorities (remember the infamous 'virginity tests' that young Indian brides were subjected to at UK's Heathrow airport in 1960s and `70s?).
All Indian citizens – and not just VIPs or diplomats – travel abroad with a passport issued in the name of the President of India who requires foreign authorities to extend all due protection and courtesy to the holder of the passport.
Any mistreatment accorded to any Indian citizen travelling with a legitimate passport or similar travel document is – or should be – an insult to national honour, and taken up as such.
Countries such as Finland – to name just one member of the Schengen group – have been known to discriminate against Indian travellers by refusing them entry even through they have valid passports and visas. Yet the government of India extends typical Indian hospitality to citizens of Finland and other countries who get visas on arrival in India.
When we obligingly bend over backwards for foreign countries, why are we so surprised when we get our bottoms kicked by them?
So by all means let's get all het up about the undeserved treatment meted out to the Indian diplomat. But let's not forget that if Indians get treated like unequal inferiors by foreign authorities it is because our own government treats common Indians – as distinct from VIPs and sarkari employees – as unequal inferiors.
Or, to paraphrase, George Orwell's dictum in Animal Farm, all Indians are equal, but some are more equal than others.
jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com
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