The government has promised a re-look at the “meet and greet” protocols at Indian airports for foreign dignitaries.
Was former president APJ Abdul Kalam frisked by an American airline because his name implied a particular religious identity or is India particularly generous to foreign dignitaries without other countries returning the favour?
Whatever the case, the government has promised a re-look at the “meet and greet” protocols at Indian airports for foreign dignitaries after MPs cutting across party lines protested the outrage to India’s honour.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said he would be speaking to his external affairs counterpart SM Krishna to modify protocol rules. “Protocol rules are drawn after consulting the external affairs ministry. I will refer the matter to him,” he said.
Taking serious note of the incident, BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, “Why are our dignitaries mistreated every time they travel on another airline or to another country when we take cars up to the tarmac to pick them up and bypass all security checks?”
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury had another take on the matter. “Was he frisked because his name is Abdul Kalam? If so, this is a serious matter,” he said.
Referring to similar such cases in the past, Jaitley said, “Not only Kalam, other Indian dignitaries such as former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee and former defence ministers Jaswant Singh and George Fernandes had all been humiliated in a similar way. Therefore, we need to review our protocols for foreign dignitaries as well.”
Government sources, however, said the matter was of grave importance as Kalam had been frisked not on foreign soil but in India. “Then why should we roll out a red carpet for their dignitaries?” a senior minister said.
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