America tagging the wrong foot

There was a time when an almost constant topic of discussion in political, intellectual and education circles, and in homes, was the problem of “brain-drain” from India. Everybody held forth on how facilities, research and otherwise, were so difficult to obtain in India that reaching foreign shores to pursue education or to find a career appeared to be the golden dream.
A vast majority of people in India and elsewhere believed that the United States was the land of milk and honey, that the streets there were paved with gold. Also, many believed the words written on the Statue of Liberty at Ellis Island proclaiming the US as the land which “welcomes your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” spoke directly to them and reaching the US was their life’s ambition.
Around 2007, there were roughly 80,000 students from India in the US, in 2009 they were 94,000, and today the number apparently stands at 100,000.
When US President Barack Obama visited India last year, he vowed to “increase exchanges between our students, our colleges and our universities which are among the best in the world”. Well, today, the reaction in most of India is “no, thank you”. The outrage and fury in India over radio tagging students from the bogus Tri Valley University in California is neither an over-reaction nor is it what some have argued to be the typical Indian penchant for dramatising routine events.
We are told that this is normal procedure in the US, to radio tag. US state department spokesperson P.J. Crowley declared: “This is the standard procedure for a variety of investigations… it does not imply guilt or suspicion of criminal activity”. Wow. That was a great comfort for those approximately 1,555 students, 95 per cent of whom were Indians (mostly from Andhra Pradesh) and many of whom were victims of a fraud perpetuated by a US educational institution which should have been regulated by US federal authorities. Also, the very same department of immigration which has now clamped ankle monitors on students gave them valid visas to enter the US and study.
Should the ankle monitors therefore be clamped upon those US officials who gave visas to students? Or upon the education regulatory authorities in the US who allowed such a sham university to function for so long, the scamsters, who set up this university and, essentially, perpetrated the scam? Or should the ankle monitors be clamped upon the students who were really the victims of a gigantic fraud perpetrated upon them and are even now staring at a bleak and uncertain future?
The state department spokesperson has not elaborated upon these issues.
However, Juliet Wurr, an officer in the US consulate at Hyderabad, had plenty to say. She said it with a twinkling smile upon national Indian TV. She said that ankle bracelets were “hip and happening” and the other choice was to “wear an orange jumpsuit and sit in jail”. She said a lot of other things but concluded with what she thought was the ultimate recommendation for ankle monitors: “Even Hollywood celebrities wear them!” Sure they do. Those Hollywood celebrities who have committed crimes or arrested for drunk driving have to be constantly monitored by the police. Well, we have our own Bollywood, Kollywood, and Tollywood celebrities, and are happy to report that not a one has been ever asked to wear an ankle monitor. And it is really of little consequence to over one billion Indians what Lindsay Lohan wears on her ankle. Many of us felt that perhaps the lady herself should suggest that all Americans living or visiting India could wear ankle bracelets, or neck braces with radio tags, just to make sure that their safety and security in this country are constantly monitored. One article suggested that perhaps, if they were such a fabulous fashion accessory, Juliet Wurr could suggest to her superiors, that orange jumpsuit be made office wear for US embassy officials.
The lady has since apologised and has graciously conceded that she should not have offended the sensibilities of Indians. Too right.
But the problem is much larger than one lady with unfortunate articulation or an odd sense of humour. Till today the radio tags have been taken off from only two students from Tri Valley. The rest are wearing those ankle monitors and probably will be scarred for lives by the experience and the sheer shame of it.
At the crux of the matter lies the question of discrimination. Why the radio tags only for the students and not for those who gave them the visas or set up the university in the first place? Is it US policy to punish victims? The US government needs to address these questions. Remember that this is not one issue which has been blown out of proportion. Apart from the very real discrimination against students which is apparent in this case, we should not forget the racially motivated attacks against Indian students living in the US and elsewhere, where little has been done to address the problem with sensitivity and seriousness.
It has to be conceded by those like me who fume over this treatment meted out to our students that there may be several or many who just got into Tri Valley on a student visa ostensibly to study but soon left for distant locations to work and earn, thereby violating US laws. Those students certainly deserve punishment and deportation or whatever else the law mandates. However, the US needs to take action against those education and university authorities who created this fraud and look into why the Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave these students visas in the first place.
At any rate, ankle monitors are both unnecessary and insulting. They are certainly not “standard procedure” as the US may like us to believe.
Enquiries in the US suggest that ankle monitors are actually being tested as an alternative to keeping criminals in jail because of the high cost of detention. Some even darkly suggest that radio tagging is part of a US attempt to track aliens, much like we in India track wild animals in their natural habitat by radio tagging them. The Government of India has taken a serious view of this issue and taken follow-up action and the US needs to respond with gravity and concern.

Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson. The views expressed in this
column are her own.