Letters: Diplomatically incorrect

This refers the editorial 'Follow local laws' (December 16). None can fault the US law enforcement authorities proceeding against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade if she had committed visa fraud and other alleged serious offences. But the question is whether her handcuffing and public humiliation was justified? Handcuffing may be resorted to by the escorting police 'only if the prisoner is dangerous and desperate, or is likely to break out of custody or play the vanishing trick', as the Indian Supreme Court observed while providing guidelines on the practice to be followed by the Indian police. Would the US government tolerate similar treatment meted out to its own diplomats abroad? The case reminds us of the hue and cry the US government raised in 1994 over the flogging sentence awarded by the Singapore authorities to American teenager Michael Fay, who pleaded guilty to committing mischief, like spraying paints on parked cars. America seems to believe its own citizens abroad are more equal before the law, than local citizens.

V Jayaramam Chennai

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