INDIA: Not Protesting Enough About Racial Profiling

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Praful Bidwai

NEW DELHI, Aug 28 2006 (IPS) - As more details emerge of the events that led to the detention of 12 Indian Muslims travelling aboard an aborted Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam last week, it becomes apparent that they were victims of racial and religious prejudice.

It also becomes equally clear that the Netherlands is unlikely to apologise to or compensate the victims unless the Indian government takes a tough stand on the issue, in response to the widespread shock and revulsion it has generated domestically.

Dutch officials claim that the 12 men were behaving “suspiciously”, refused to obey cabin crew’s instructions and were seen “walking around, looking at their bags, exchanging cellphones”. They also say that the suspects were treated in a dignified and humane way and released when “no evidence” was found that they “were about to commit an act of violence”.

All evidence suggests that Northwest Airlines staff and the Dutch authorities over-reacted. The men were all relatively young Mumbai-based garment exporters and were returning from a trade fair in Trinidad and Tobago. There, they bought cellphones at bargain prices, and were excited at their achievement. Some tried to use the new instruments shortly after take-off.

Said Shakeel Chotani: “We were just trying to get the phones all together at one place – we were collecting them in a plastic bag. It was nice to travel with friends – and after more than a month of hard work, we were just having some funà Since there were so many seats emptyà we decided to lie down and sleepàthat’s why we had moved around. Maybe this made the crew suspicious. The air marshals could have misunderstood us.”

Another passenger said: “It’s not true that we didn’t fasten our seat-belts. We did.” Some passengers traded places, and “there was some movement.” According to another account, most members of the group were asleep when the emergency was sounded.

The crew made no attempt to communicate with the passengers and explain the rules. “But the worst part was that when the marshals arrived, they treated us very shabbily – they behaved as if we were thieves and criminals.”

The behaviour of a few of the men, who moved, infringed aircraft flight rules. Such infringements are not uncommon. This one could have been corrected with polite but firm intervention by the crew.

The crew made no effort to determine whether the men were excited over a private joke. It opted for confrontation and hostility. The men were “handcuffed and taken out of the plane one by one.”

A Dutch co-passenger, Antunius Slotboom, was quoted in the Indian media saying: “The way they got arrested inside the plane with everybody seeingà was inhumaneà they were treated like dogs.”

”Their arrest seemed part of an offensive against Arabic people,” Slotboom, who arrived in Mumbai on Thursday night with the others, was quoted saying. ”They did not hit them (the arrested men), but pushed them.” Slotboom said he too was removed from the plane after he protested the officials’ behaviour: ”They said, Okay, you come with us and you are not allowed to fly any more”.

On disembarking at Amsterdam, the 12 passengers were kept handcuffed for hours on end, and denied consular and legal access. They were not allowed to telephone their families. They were not given water for a long period. They were lodged in solitary cells.. The Dutch delayed sharing any information about the passengers with the Indian government.

“The Dutch authorities’ conduct smacks of prejudice and crude racism,” says Achin Vanaik, professor of international relations and global politics at Delhi University, and a frequent visitor to the Netherlands. “It is typical of the Islamophobic attitudes of people who sense a threat each time they see a bearded brown or black and hear what sounds like Arabic to them.”

Vanaik also emphasises that the present Dutch government is run by one of the most extreme right-wing ruling coalitions in recent history.

The Indian government has registered “a strong protest” against the Netherlands, but fought shy of demanding an apology. It merely said, “the response that is required” from the Dutch is “self-evident”. The Dutch have refused to apologise, even express regret.

There have been other recent incidents of racial profiling and harassment of passengers of Asian origin in Europe. On Aug. 16, two British students of Asian origin were ejected from a flight from Malaga in Spain to Manchester after fellow-passengers complained that they were acting “suspiciously” and speaking a strange language (Urdu), which they mistook for “Arabic”.

Similarly, Indian-born Claude Moraes, a member of the European Parliament from Britain, says he has been repeatedly treated as a suspected terrorist while travelling. He was twice subjected to a full body search at airports for “travelling whilst Asian.” On one occasion, the security staff in Paris did not believe he was an MEP, even though he carries a special passport.

Such incidents are likely to multiply. Europe and North America have recently witnessed growth in racism and anti-Islamic xenophobia. Asians, more and more of whom are travelling to the West, are among its likeliest victims. Prominent among them will be Indians.

Already, many Indians complain of discrimination and prejudice when travelling in the West. Even celebrities and information technology executives experience this. Examples include writer Amitava Ghosh, former minister George Fernandes and IT businessman Azim Premji, the world’s third richest man, as reckoned by the ‘Fortune’ magazine.

The counter-terrorism and transportation security situation is likely to worsen if authorities in the West start using methods such as screening passengers by observation technique (SPOT). This involves profiling behavioural clues by watching people for suspicious or fidgeting conduct, such as picking up and putting down one’s baggage, touching one’s fingers to one’s chin, and making other odd gestures. SPOT is being tried experimentally at a dozen U.S. airports.

“Behavioural profiling” was developed by, among others, Paul Ekman, a California professor, in the mid-sixties. He compiled the Facial Action Coding System -an intricate, 500-page catalogue. But this has proved notoriously unreliable. Experts have warned of its many pitfalls.

A 2000 review article found that in FACS experiments, “where subjects were trying to detect whether others were telling the truth or lying, [they] had an overall success rate of 56.6 percent -slightly better than a coin toss.” Subjects were able to determine that they were being lied to “only 44 percent of the time -meaning that they would have done better closing their eyes and guessing.”

SPOT was developed by a former Israeli security official and a behavioural psychologist. But civil liberties proponents oppose it and have warned it could turn into another version of racial profiling.

“India can play a major global role in preventing and punishing racial and religious discrimination,” says Vanaik. “Today, it pulls a lot of weight in international affairs, but it is not using it to demand an end to such practices. It must launch a campaign to this end.”

India seems unlikely to do so except under intense public pressure. It does not want to upset the applecart and risk jeopardising its growing strategic partnership with the U.S. Indian policy-makers now follow the West’s lead in security and counter-terrorism matters, including stereotypes about “Islamic terrorism” and fighting it with military means.