They are Legal Citizens of India

 

They are Legal Citizens of India

As long as the Indian citizens are in India, they have shed their tag of being illegal! The moment they stepped outside of the plane that carried them, and on to the awaiting ladder, they are legal citizens of India, aren’t they? Unless of course, for some other reasons they are on the lookout of GoI.

Then, why did they descend the steps in handcuffs, property of the US? My question is NOT a follow-up to what Dr. Jaishankar was politically quizzed. The first question that came to mind when I saw the deportees handcuffed was, when the handcuffs would be off. The second question is this: if indeed they had violated their privileges offered by the President of India (through their passports), then, they must have been handcuffed in Indian handcuffs. In international relationships, such nit-pickings are the order of the day, do you not agree?

I do not have any skin in this game between two countries, but there are those–the ruling and opposition parties at the centre and states–which do. Who lost and who won? Or, was it all NOT a zero-sum game?

Raghuram Ekambaram

P. S. Why was the plane directed to Amritsar, and not to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, or Bengaluru? I have a tentative answer, but I would like hear from the readers, a fools lazy errend, I know.

Raghuram Ekambaram