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India is crowing about its diplomatic victory in getting the two Italian Marines back to India. It is true: this is no mean feat. If you consider the kind of trouble the US got into over CIA contractor Raymond Davis who shot and killed two Pakistanis at close range in Pakistan (President Obama had threatened to end US aid to Pakistan unless Davis was handed over according to the tenets of diplomatic immunity), it is not hard to appreciate how difficult it is to penetrate immunity that is part of the Vienna Convention.
On a lighter note, the NYPD’s traffic department is constantly gnashing its teeth at the sums of money the city loses every year on account of unpaid parking tickets by diplomats who invariably cite diplomatic immunity. So India has won a really, really difficult battle and we should not cavil at the victory, not matter how it was achieved, whether by the intervention of the Prime Minister or the Congress President. That’s a story we will never know.
But there are people who are asking: diplomatic victory for whom? What does diplomacy mean for most ordinary Indians anyway? It means that if you are an Indian in trouble abroad, your country comes to your aid, pulls out all stops in getting you out of jail, makes sure that you get a safe passage home if you’ve been caught up in conflict and generally takes care of you: considering the amount you pay in taxes, protects your interest.
The sorry truth is that when it comes to public dealings: putting out a public face of India as a country, a regional power and rising international power, officialdom fails spectacularly. This applies to everyone across the board – whether it is the little guys, the construction labour say, in Saudi Arabia; or well-heeled highly qualified professionals in the US or UK. A quick chat with some of those who have been in trouble abroad and have gone to the Indian Embassy / High Commission seeking help suggests: don’t bother. You will be treated with contempt, unhelpfulness and rudeness. This is subject to the caveat that applies in all Indian situations: if you know someone, that’s different.
A young woman studying at Cambridge about three years ago had finished her course. She had packed all her things, had taken the train from Cambridge to Paddington and was just getting off the train to change to the Heathrow Express when suddenly two youths sidled up to her, slit the straps of her laptop bag which had her passport, ticket and money, secured it and raced out of the station. Dazed and disoriented, the girl fell to the ground and was helped up by bystanders only to find she had absolutely nothing – except a photocopy of the first and last page of her passport in her suitcase. After filing a police complaint and securing a copy, she went to the Indian High Commission, expecting that she would get some advice on what to do next. She was bleeding at the knees, crying and distraught.
The High Commission officials took their time to come out and see her. They first advised her to go to the police. “I’ve already done that” she said. Then they took a look at the photocopy of her passport and asked what she was doing in central London if she was studying at Cambridge. She told them the story again. Then they asked her to wait. In the waiting room, were some other Indians who told her she was wasting her time. They advised her to go to the British Home Office.
Recognising she had nothing to lose, she just walked out and went to the Home Office. There, a paper was issued to her immediately that would help her leave Britain and explain things to the Indian immigrations in Delhi. By then she had missed her flight so British Airways arranged a passage for her on another flight.
Recognising she had nothing to lose, she just walked out and went to the Home Office. There, a paper was issued to her immediately that would help her leave Britain and explain things to the Indian immigrations in Delhi. By then she had missed her flight so British Airways arranged a passage for her on another flight.
A doctor narrated the story of how he got a job in Kuwait and was asked to report for duty. Just three days later, Kuwait was invaded by Iraq. He had arrived with his family. They lost everything to marauding mobs. One of his sons was a British passport holder. While the family took shelter in a hotel that had no water, electricity or food (and lived on charity of Kuwaiti families) the son reported to the British Embassy. He was evacuated in 48 hours and when he reached London, the Iraqi Ambassador was waiting to meet each Briton personally to ask if they’d had any trouble. It took India five weeks to arrange evacuation and “every hour was a challenge. We could never say what would happen the next hour”.
Sanjaya Verma, one of India’s most outstanding diplomats because he views with compassion, the problems poorer Indians face abroad, has set up an elaborate office for legal help to Indians in Dubai. Faced with an opaque legal system which is weighted in favour of the employer, labour problems in the Gulf countries are the commonest challenge to Indians at the lower end of the job market. Even if it is an Indian who is at fault, he needs someone to hold his hand and guide him if he gets into trouble. In Dubai, a phone helpline which is backed up by a call centre that works three days a week, ensures the first level of legal help. After that, referral help is possible. The Government of India pays for everything.
But it has to be said, the reverse is also true. A General of the Indian Army was having a drink in a beer garden in Germany. He had put his pouch with his passport and money on the seat next to him. He reached out to get his mug of beer and when he turned to get his pouch to pay for, he found it was gone. Within hours, the Defence Attache in the Indian Embassy had a new passport, some spending money and a copy of his ticket ready for him. That was via the Indian Army network, though. So the same principle: if you know someone…
Although visa and consular services of the Indian Foreign Service is that part of diplomacy considered the least glamorous, the much reviled former Foreign Minister SM Krishna needs to be given some credit. It was he who tried to transform the face of visa and passport services by creating the Passport Seva Kendras, outsourcing part of the work to TCS so that the experience of getting a passport could be made more professional and less harrowing. These services are run by both the Home and the External Affairs Ministry But they represent the first stage of an Indian coming face to face with diplomacy.
So diplomacy and entitlement – of service, help and outreach to Indians – need to come together. After all, all of us pay for it !
