Indian diplomat's daughter files $1.5m suit against New York City

[The Messiah]

I was reading reactions of Indians living in Australia after GOI decided to react angrily on the issue of "mistreatment of Indian students" there, these more fortunate Indians were defending "Australian way of life" and blaming "these uncultured Indian students" for inviting unwarranted attention and troubles upon themselves.

Unfortunately portion of our population has come to view foreign way of life as superior...now obviously some aspects of every culture are good and need to be absorbed but they basically think Indian way as inferior and India as inferior.

This is what an ignorant pro-western Indian thinks:

1. Indian gets attacked in australia....he/she thinks Indian deserved it because of xyz reason which will surely include a remark that 'he must be a junglee'

2. Some foreigner gets attacked in India...he/she automatically assumes that Indians are once again uncultured junglees without seeing the facts or recognizing the possibility that the foreigner himself might br at fault..

 

[amitkriit]

Beastly behaviour

Racist Americans have an attitude problem

The Government of India has done well to support the legal action initiated by Ms Krittika Biswas, daughter of our vice consul Debashis Biswas at the Indian Consulate in Manhattan, for her wrongful arrest and confinement at the instigation of the principal and mathematics teacher of the New York school she attends, John Browne HS Senior, on charges that have been found to be entirely spurious. But extending support is not enough. The Government should step forward and hire the best lawyers to take the case to its logical conclusion. The issue at stake is not the damages ($1.5 million) that have been claimed by Ms Biswas who has filed a suit against the New York City Education Department: No amount of money can compensate for the indignity, trauma and humiliation she has had to suffer because of rude and racist Americans who think they are beyond accountability and do not have to answer for their boorish behaviour and worse, especially when Indians are involved. The nation's prestige is at stake and even if it pains the Prime Minister to see Americans being put in the dock for abusing the freedom and dignity of Indians, he must step aside and let the Government robustly defend the rights of Ms Biswas. Nothing less than this shall suffice; the time has come to tell the Americans where they get off — their President cannot come looking for jobs in this country while they treat Indians like criminals in their country. Not only must New York City be made accountable, the arrogant school principal who still refuses to admit his mistake should be made an example of. Meanwhile, all diplomatic privileges extended to American diplomats posted in India, as well as their wives and children, must be immediately suspended till the US State Department apologises in writing and provides an assurance that such beastly acts shall not be repeated. There is no reason why we should continue to be needlessly nice to Americans who hold us in contempt.

This is not the first time that Indians, that too those who enjoy diplomatic immunity, are being subjected to harassment and humiliation in the US. Last December, India's Ambassador to the US, Ms Meera Shankar, a top diplomat, was groped in the guise of a 'pat-down' at an American airport by officials who, we are expected to believe, found a person wearing a sari suspicious. Our Permanent Representative to the UN, Mr Hardeep Puri, also a senior and distinguished diplomat, was asked to take off his turban at another American airport. When he protested, he was held in a detention room. India's former President APJ Abdul Kalam was asked to take off his shoes before entering an American aircraft, ostensibly because the American security officials thought he could be a potential shoe-bomber. In Ms Biswas's case, even after she pleaded with the police that she held a diplomatic passport, that her father was employed with the Indian Consulate, she was handcuffed and frog-marched to a prison by American officials who rudely mocked at her. The American Embassy in New Delhi and the State Department in Washington, DC, will predictably wave aside the latest instance of American arrogance as a stray incident and offer lip-service to assuage hurt feelings. We must not get distracted by such hollow gestures which mean nothing.

============
I wish to know what actions were take in past by GOI, particularly in the incident involving APJ Abdul Kalam. My guess is that no legal action was taken after the airline tendered an apology.

 

[pmaitra]

^^ Amit, I respect your views and you are one of the most articulate and accurate posters around. I would humbly state that The Daily Pioneer is hardly a newspaper worth its salt. If you have a scale with objectivity on the left and rhetoric on the right, The Daily Pioneer will be at the extreme right (no pun intended).

Edit: Cretain things I don't buy from this article and I find totally rhetorical and lacking concord with mainstream Indian newspapers:

• 'India's Ambassador to the US, Ms Meera Shankar, a top diplomat, was groped' - this alleged 'groping' of women is strictly done by women and men are 'groped' by men. This information is conveniently avoided to inflame passions.
• 'American officials who rudely mocked at her' - I don't think she was mocked at but this could be an invention, again to inflame passions.
• 'even after she pleaded with the police that she held a diplomatic passport' - she wasn't entitled to diplomatic immunity, regardless of holding a diplomatic passport. She is not a diplomat.

 

[amitkriit]

^^ Amit, I respect your views and you are one of the most articulate and accurate posters around. I would humbly state that The Daily Pioneer is hardly a newspaper worth its salt. If you have a scale with objectivity on the left and rhetoric on the right, The Daily Pioneer will be at the extreme right (no pun intended).

I did not post the article in question with the conviction that all "facts" have been truthfully presented without any bias. But then its hard to find one which is devoid of bias. My purpose was to use it as a "shock material", to make members on this forum aware of the fact that this is not the first incident of such kind, such things happened in past and GOI did not go beyond Lip Service. Even in past they tried to justify their action, most bizarre was the justification given by the "Continental Airlines" for whom US laws and the standard operating procedure took precedence over Indian laws.

We may forget for once what happened in USA, its their land, their rules, but why was no legal action taken in APJ Kalam's case even though the action of the airline was in direct violation of the law of the land.

 

[amitkriit]

^^ Amit, I respect your views and you are one of the most articulate and accurate posters around. I would humbly state that The Daily Pioneer is hardly a newspaper worth its salt. If you have a scale with objectivity on the left and rhetoric on the right, The Daily Pioneer will be at the extreme right (no pun intended).

Edit: Cretain things I don't buy from this article and I find totally rhetorical and lacking concord with mainstream Indian newspapers:

• 'India's Ambassador to the US, Ms Meera Shankar, a top diplomat, was groped' - this alleged 'groping' of women is strictly done by women and men are 'groped' by men. This information is conveniently avoided to inflame passions.
• 'American officials who rudely mocked at her' - I don't think she was mocked at but this could be an invention, again to inflame passions.
• 'even after she pleaded with the police that she held a diplomatic passport' - she wasn't entitled to diplomatic immunity, regardless of holding a diplomatic passport. She is not a diplomat.

Indian ambassador was mistreated and humiliated, doesn't matter which section of which law allowed somebody to do so. The action was against the international norms of "Diplomatic Relations" and proper response from India was expected, which never happened.
I would rather like these issues to be inflated than to be brushed down under the carpet, which GOI really wants.

 

[pmaitra]

I did not post the article in question with the conviction that all "facts" have been truthfully presented without any bias. But then its hard to find one which is devoid of bias. My purpose was to use it as a "shock material", to make members on this forum aware of the fact that this is not the first incident of such kind, such things happened in past and GOI did not go beyond Lip Service. Even in past they tried to justify their action, most bizarre was the justification given by the "Continental Airlines" for whom US laws and the standard operating procedure took precedence over Indian laws.

Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to lecture you. All I am trying to point out is that any news article that is shocking has a persuasive effect, and therefore, is rhetorical.

Rhetoric is the art and study of the use of language with persuasive effect. In Aristotle's systematization of rhetoric, one important aspect of rhetoric to study and theorize was the three persuasive audience appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos, as well as the five canons of rhetoric: invention or discovery, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Along with grammar and logic or dialectic, rhetoric is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. From ancient Greece to the late 19th Century, it was a central part of Western education, filling the need to train public speakers and writers to move audiences to action with arguments.

Source: Rhetoric - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We may forget for once what happened in USA, its their land, their rules, but why was no legal action taken in APJ Kalam's case even though the action of the airline was in direct violation of the law of the land.

Yes, in Rome do as the Romans do.

I am sure that The Daily Pioneer article could not have been published without Chandan Mitra's approval (assuming he himself did not write it). I very much doubt how many times he himself has passed through US security checkpoints. US security checkpoints are manned by people of all races.

Hell, last winter, I came across a man (security person) at Chicago Airport whose last name was 'Varghese', yes, an American of Indian ancestry. They randomly pick people and do a thorough search and those picked can randomly belong to any race or ethnicity. I have absolutely no reason to believe in discrimination as a matter of policy or practise but yes, people do err, just like the NYPD cops.

Edit 1:
Last week I passed through security checkpoints myself and I had no issues whatsoever:

• At UN:
• At Statue of Liberty:

Edit 2:
What exactly is this (the lock with a sparkle)?

 

[amitkriit]

^^ You read the story, but missed the message. I was talking about the frisking of Kalam at IGI, no legal action was taken by GOI even though the airline company did not respond to the show-cause notice and never tendered a formal apology(contrary to what was reported in media). Delhi police later refused to confirm the report that an FIR was filed against the employees(not the airline company). There was a violation of the law and GOI was too scared to act.

I am only asking my government to follow the common diplomatic norms, one of which is "Reciprocity". Am I asking for too much? India is not a company where only the annual balance sheet and economic performance matters(may be our economist PM thinks so).

 

[pmaitra]

^^ You read the story, but missed the message. I was talking about the frisking of Kalam at IGI, no legal action was taken by GOI even though the airline company did not respond to the show-cause notice and never tendered a formal apology(contrary to what was reported in media). Delhi police later refused to confirm the report that an FIR was filed against the employees(not the airline company). There was a violation of the law and GOI was too scared to act.

I am only asking my government to follow the common diplomatic norms, one of which is "Reciprocity". Am I asking for too much? India is not a company where only the annual balance sheet and economic performance matters(may be our economist PM thinks so).

I agree with reciprocity. I am with you on that.

Said that, that The Daily Pioneer article is rhetorical, lacks objectivity and I stand by what I had stated earlier.

 

[Param]

I am only asking my government to follow the common diplomatic norms, one of which is "Reciprocity". Am I asking for too much? India is not a company where only the annual balance sheet and economic performance matters(may be our economist PM thinks so).

I agree with on reciprocity. It is time India started to do that.
If the Americans or some other western countries can be so strict and arrogant regarding the treatment of foreign dignitaries we should show the same attitude.
Some one pointed out that the US and other countries have intervened when their nationals have broken the law particularly regarding drugs.This is so true.

 

[Virendra]

Even if I let this go as a mistake of the authorities, what angers me the most is that the actual culprit wasn't even touched ?
If it wasn't such a big deal, then why put the girl in Jail in the first place ?

 

[S.A.T.A]

America in the recent years seems to be reinventing the art of "How to lose friends & alienate people".They have publicly humiliated the daughter of a senior IFS officer,presumably a key decision maker in how India views and engages US,do they expect him to take this lying down,they probably turned him into sworn enemy,who probably will do everything possible,as rises in the rank,to undermine American interests in its relations with India.If he become foreign secretary,how are the Americans going to sit face to face with him and discuss anything of mutual interest...

History has several anecdotes that come in handy to emphasize the virtues of diplomatic civility.... The one incident that enraged Genghis Khan enough to thunder down the Mongolian steppes and raze the empire of Khwarezm to rubble,was that the sultan of Khwarezm had insulted the diplomats Genghis has sent on a peace mission.

 

[Virendra]

I would've still pacified myself over this as an isolated incident and mistake if the real curlprit was punished well.
But the double standards are out in the open.