Robert Wintemute walks out of Indian news channel discussion programme

[mcgillianaire]

Yesterday I posted about India's alleged racist visa rules. Not surprisingly, the article sparked a flame war in its comments section. But to spice things up, the author appeared a few hours ago on what is possibly India's most popular English news channel programme, The Newshour with Arnab Goswami on Times Now. I've yet to watch the full exchange between the presenter and the human rights lecturer, but the regular news broadcast showed a brief clip in which the author refuses to continue the discussion and walks off in disgust. He was connected by video link. It transpires that the author got some facts wrong in the article, and this resulted in an unfavourable response to it by Times Now. The channel highlighted the comparison made between India's anti-British Pakistani visa rules and Nazi treatment of Jews:

"In 1933, Nazi Germany excluded German citizens of Jewish origin from the civil service. In 1942, the United States arrested all US citizens of Japanese origin living on the west coast, and transferred them to prison camps. It makes no difference that India is practising racial discrimination against British citizens rather than its own. India would object very strongly if Australia, Canada, China or the US made it much harder for British citizens of Indian origin (but not Pakistani origin) to obtain a tourist visa."

Two or three wrongs don't make a right. And even if Prof Wintemute did get some facts wrong and even if he won't apologise for these errors whatever they maybe, it is irrelevant. Because the fundamental principle remains true in that every government, British or Indian, must resist the temptation "to abandon human rights principles and impose sweeping restrictions on the innocent" whenever terror strikes.

Comments

[elodie21.livejournal.com]

This is a touchy topic! Would security be enhanced and terrorists thwarted if a stricter visa regime was followed? I really doubt India is taking effective preventive measures, seems more likely that taking such a course of action is to show simple diplomatic upper-hand. Yes India has the right to set its own rules and indulge in any amount of fear and suspicion of imminent attacks by prospective terrorists carrying a visa, but that doesn't really mean their paranoia is justified. You have the right to be wrong but that doesn't make the wrong right!

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

Can't argue with a word of that! Spot on.