Should Indians here start to pray for Encarnacion’s release?
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: It’s one thing for a less than venerable, trashy tabloid like New York Post – who thrives on sensationalism and for whom breaking news most probably means celebrity estrangements – to splash a cover piece on a New York Police Department (NYPD) policeman, Manny Encarnacion, arrested at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi for possession of three bullets, and blaming it as retaliation for the arrest and strip search of Devyani Khobragade in New York.
It’s quite another for a respected newspaper like The Wall Street Journal to also mindlessly put out the news, without analyzing and pointing out that the policeman was in the wrong, that it was a security threat for India. Not questioning as to how did he manage to board a flight from the US to India without being caught here; no acknowledgement or praise for India’s security system, which red flagged him.
Of course, one can explain it by pointing out that both the Post and the Journal are owned by Rupert Murdoch. But has the quality of journalism the two practice also merged indistinguishably? Does being known as right wing leaning publications mean also to lean right out of the window of perception?
How many more times will the Post make egregious mistakes in judgment in what they put out on their front pages, make it look like news? Last year, it was the faux pas of the ‘Bag Men’ cover story – their infamous headline with the photo of two Moroccan-American marathon attendees, implied as the Boston Marathon bombers. Turned out those two were innocent bystanders.
It’s one thing for New York Republican Congressman Peter King, a rabid India baiter – he has sponsored legislation against India and sided with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue – and vigorous Islamaphobe – he has been on record saying there are too many mosques in the US – to come out swinging against India on the arrest of the policeman, and make irrational remarks and demands. When one comes to know that his father was a policeman in the NYPD, his over the top comments makes a bit more sense, not too much though.
“This excessive act by the Indian government is clearly politically motivated in response to the arrest of India’s then deputy consul general in December 2013 in New York for alleged visa fraud,” wrote King to Secretary of State John Kerry, and asked him to intervene in the matter. King was also quoted as saying, reacting to the arrest: “This is the type of thing we used to associate with the Soviet Union or a third-world dictatorship, not what actually is the world’s largest democracy.”
But it’s quite another thing for a respected, senior statesman like New York Democrat Senator Charles Schumer to also take umbrage with India over the issue.
“What [India] did is childish,” Schumer said to CBS, on the arrest.
It’s one thing for the NYPD Commissioner William Bratton to make a statement that his office is working with the State Department to resolve the case – rightly so, to get one of their finest back – and quite another for the Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio to also plunge into the issue, saying that he is “troubled” by the arrest.
de Blasio, has been more circumspect with later comments: “First of all we don’t have enough information to 100 percent determine whether there is an ulterior motive in that situation. Obviously I am concerned there may be,” he was quoted as saying.
For the Mayor of one of the most diverse cities in the world to make a partial comment like an “ulterior motive” suggests a naivety and immaturity as a politician and statesman.
But then, there is Schumer too.
The Post today put out also an editorial with the headline: A passage out of India.
It starts like this: “If India wishes to be treated as a first-rate power, maybe it should act like one. This begins with the release of a New York City policeman it has arrested and detained in retaliation for the earlier arrest here of an Indian diplomat on charges she’d lied on visa forms about her maid’s pay.”
The editorial writes off lambasting the State Department spokesperson in Washington, DC for taking a noncommittal position, a wish to move out of the retaliation mode, and finishes with a veiled threat to India: “We are confident our government has many levers it can use to drive home to New Delhi that there will be a high price to pay if Encarnacion is not released. In the meantime, no US official should be looking to “get past” tensions with India until this American police officer is back on his home soil.”
As far as one can glean from the news out there, Encarnacion had gone on a conjugal visit to see his wife Vida, an Iranian student living in Iran. India was their meeting point, their paradise in a complicated life. While there, Encarnacion has posted many happy photos of himself on his Facebook, including one of him smiling at the Taj Mahal. Perhaps this headline would have been more appropriate: ‘A Passage to India’. (Or maybe) ‘Paradise Lost’.
The Indian Consulate in New York was quick to react to the crescendo being built up against India in the media here, and released an appropriate statement – which was relayed by the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, too – calling the allegation that the arrest of Encarnacion was in connection to the Khobragade episode, “ridiculous”.
Not only has the reaction by US politicians, elected state officials, the police and the media, who have given a slant to this notion that the arrest of an American at an airport in India caught with bullets is in connection to something else, ridiculous, it also shows how pompous, arrogant, brash, coercive the country really is, when it comes to dealing with India, of late, if not as it has been always. The US has showed its double standards. One rule for them is another for India.
How can seasoned personalities like Schumer and King – who has also been the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security – de Blasio and Bratton, publications like the Journal, not understand that India too, like the US, has laws in place for carrying arms on an airplane? That India too has faced terrorist attacks on its soil, lost thousands of innocent lives, have had hijackings of airplanes?
Would these same people take a lenient view if an Indian solider or police officer was caught at the JFK airport with ammunition on his self, trying to board a domestic flight? And it is found that he is coming to see his wife in the US who is of Iranian origin? Would the security officials have bought his argument at the airport that he accidentally carried ammunition along, given him a friendly pat on his back, and called a yellow cab for him to go on his way, or rebooked a flight? God forbid if that Indian policeman was also a Muslim.
By now perhaps both he and his lovely Iranian wife would be in prison at Guantanamo Bay in solitary confinement.
Does the US really think that their state and the judiciary is separate, but not India’s? That India’s judicial system should kowtow meekly to a demand from the State Department?
Encarnacion is out on a $1,000 bail since the incident happened on March 11and getting to spend more time with his wife. His hearing is on April 17th in New Delhi. His lawyer, Samarjit Pattnaik, in an email to NBC News, had this to convey: “In my view, Manuel should not be dragged into this ‘non-existing’ ‘diplomatic controversy’ as far as his case is concerned.”
For Encarnacion, right now it’s Paradise Regained, he’s spending more time with his wife. If he’s found guilty, he faces three to seven years in prison. If found innocent, he would return to a hero’s welcome in New York. The court in India will decide his fate.
But the damage to India and Indian and Indian Americans living in the US is once again done.
If Encarnacion is found guilty of violation of India’s Arms Act, then it would be the duty of the de Blasio administration and the NYPD to ensure that people of the South Asian community are not harassed indiscriminately, that nothing like the Post said, “a high price to pay” happens. Can they assure that? Or should all the Indians living in the US start to pray for Encarnacion’s release?
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar)
2 Comments
It does not matter if Manny is NYPD officer or not. What does matter the most is carrying bullet without license is a punishable offence under Arms Act in India. So whoever the person is whether Indian or any foreigner, including Manny encarnasion, he has to go through the legal action and if found guilty then let the law of the land take its course without any prejudice. Carrying a Arm, Weapons, bullets are punishable upto 3 to 7 years jail term under Indian Arms Act
They better pray that this cop gets out with some kind of fine. This is NYPD we are talking about. You can close your eyes and find Indians in NY.