Speaker says no frisking, to avoid Sydney

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee put everyone in a fix. He announced in Manila, where he is attending an Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting today, that he would not go to Sydney (Australia) to attend a meeting of the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliament Association because he did not want to be frisked at the airport there.

"My country's prestige is at stake and I do not want to compromise on it. I would prefer not to go," Chatterjee, according to the Speaker's office sources, said.`

"As the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, which represents the world's largest democracy, if I am not trusted in any of the countries, then I should not go there. We have to be exempted from security checks as heads of government and heads of state.

"Unless we respect each other, how can we have good relations? It is all the more painful when a fellow Commonwealth country does this. It is unfortunate. It is really an affront to India that some country insists on rigorous checks on its Speaker in the name of security," he said.

This is likely to create a protocol problem.

Chatterjee obviously wants to prove that he is not like former Defence Minister George Fernandes who was described by Strobe Talbott, leader in the Bill Clinton Administration, as having consented to be stripped and searched.

The incident, described in Talbott's book, had created a storm in Parliament with the Left parties most vociferous about the manner in which the action had compromised India's sovereignty.

But countries have their own security procedures and after the 9/11 attack, Australia is strict about observing these procedures. It is hard to imagine what other countries Chatterjee, as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha will refuse to visit on the ground that he does not want to be frisked.