Sensitivity missing in US airport security

The detention and apparent harassment of an Indian state cabinet minister at Boston’s Logan Airport highlights a continuing problem that officials from non-white countries have when trying to enter the United States.

Uttar Pradesh Urban Development Minister Mohammad Azam Khan was detained and frisked – an incident that might be put down to the hysteria following the Boston marathon bombing, but Khan, travelling on a diplomatic passport and on official business, was clearly no terrorist threat.  

This is also the latest in a long chapter of such incidents. The Foreign Minister in the former BJP Government, George Fernandes, was strip-searched twice in Dulles Airport while on an official visit and the country’s then Ambassador to Washington, Meera Shankar, was given a public ‘pat-down’ at an airport in Mississippi in 2010, apparently singled out from a group of about 30 passengers because she was wearing a sari.

Surely India’s official representative in the United States should have been recognised – even in Mississippi.

These are just three incidents involving Indians. There are many similar stories from other countries and probably many more which are never reported.

While security at airports must be of prime concern, the abuse of public figures, especially those involved in high-level contacts with the United States, does the country’s image no favours at a time when it should be looking after the representatives of countries friendly towards it.

And while there are Americans – I have met them – who have the view that the United States is the centre of the universe and the rest of the world can go hang, this is a dangerous attitude in an increasingly globalised environment.

How difficult would it be for airport security to be given advance information on who is travelling on what flight and at least be aware that so-and-so is a high-level political figure or other VIP and thus no security threat?

To drag people out of a crowd just because they are not wearing Western dress or have a less than white skin is a clumsy, ham-fisted way of handling security.

Ironically, Khan recently advocated that his own state’s police should be given special training “to sensitise them to the problems of the common man”.