<i>Metternich's World</i>
Something is pretty troubling about the way America treats foreigners. It is understandable that the country will be concerned about its security, especially against a background of the tragedy which happened in September 2001. It is not understandable, though, why every non-American must be considered a potential terrorist, a purveyor of some of the most sinister ideas in the world.
People who travel to America these days come back to tell us, as a matter of routine, of all the unsavoury treatment they are subjected to at airports in that huge country. If that is indeed the case, one wonders how terribly embarrassed and humiliated a traveler to America might feel or how unreasonable the fears of humiliation being heaped upon him will be, those that may cause his heartbeat to register a rise.
Frankly, however, it is time for the United States, for its government, even for the fanatical right wing which these days commands so much attention in the American media, to rethink their entire approach to how they deal with foreigners, both those arriving at their airports and those who happen to be within American territory itself.
The sordid treatment that was meted out to India's ambassador to the United States at an American airport last week is surely an outrage that Washington should have swiftly dealt with. Meera Shankar was frisked by US security after being singled out in a queue only because she was attired in a saree.
Of course, it is normal for over-enthusiastic security to make mistakes as they plod through their daily grind of keeping America safe from any threat, real or imagined. But to turn a mistake into a blunder, as they did in Meera Shankar's case, by ignoring the fact that they are mistreating the chief representative of another country is unpardonable. There is something called politeness. There is another thing called diplomatic norms. In the Indian ambassador's case, both went missing. In the end, it was an angry India, followed by angry people outside everywhere, that came up as the image. But was the US government embarrassed?
From the evidence, it does not appear that the White House or the State Department at all feels terrible about what has happened. Washington has expressed regret, which is not quite the same thing as offering an apology. You might be tempted to ask if America has ever, if at all, said sorry to any other nation for what it may have done wrong. Think of the Tonkin crisis of 1964 or the bombing of Cambodia in 1970. Not so long ago, security related to an American airline felt no qualms at all about frisking India's former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at an Indian airport. Which raises the question of whether all this concern for security has led to a jettisoning of all forms of civility in post-2001 America.
The actor Shahrukh Khan goes through a humiliating ordeal on arrival in America. Why isn't there someone in America, someone on the higher perches of government in Washington, to remind their security employees that there are perfectly respectable people even outside America, that they too have their dignity?
Imagine the huge uproar that would result if any American diplomat were stopped at an airport outside the United States and subjected to interrogation. How would George W. Bush react if an Indian airline told him he must be searched for security reasons? What will Tom Cruise do if on arrival in Mumbai he is treated to a gruesome session of questioning by Indian security?
The trouble with those that are powerful is that very often they lose sight of perspective. There is in them a huge urge to topple (and hang) men like Saddam Hussein and yet there is not the slightest interest in them in promoting democracy in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Diplomacy is always diluted by arrogance. In the Meera Shankar case, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has demonstrated that arrogance, in all its irritating brilliance. She thinks frisking the Indian ambassador was done by the book, was appropriate. A message here for other foreign diplomats based in Washington? It could be something like this: your diplomatic immunity is not enough when you travel through post-Dubya America. You are like everyone else.
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