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What If The Saudi Diplomat's Exit Had Happened Under A Congress Government?

What If The Saudi Diplomat's Exit Had Happened Under A Congress Government?
Activists of All India Democratic Women's Association shout slogans during a protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. Two Nepalese maids who alleged they were beaten and raped by a Saudi diplomat in India have been taken to a women's shelter in Nepal. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
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Activists of All India Democratic Women's Association shout slogans during a protest outside the Saudi Arabian embassy in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015. Two Nepalese maids who alleged they were beaten and raped by a Saudi diplomat in India have been taken to a women's shelter in Nepal. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Just imagine the mayhem if a Saudi diplomat in India, accused of human trafficking and rape, had been allowed to go home by a Congress-led government. The right-wing would have berserk. They would have said the Congress has done this for minority appeasement. They would have said the Congress has taken money. They would have shouted liberal hypocrisy, pseudo-secularism, sickularism, double standards.

Various wings of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh would have been protesting outside the Saudi embassy. Vinay Katiyar and Praveen Togadia would have been making inflammatory speeches.

Of course the Congress wants good relations with Saudi Arabia, they would have said. Every explanation, every argument would have been rebutted strongly. Every single individual on Twitter with left-liberal politics would have been tagged, harassed, abused.

If you had told them about diplomatic immunity, they would have Googled and quoted you umpteen examples to show countries taking strong diplomatic actions despite diplomatic immunity.

They would have said, even if diplomatic immunity means he can’t be arrested, at least the Indian government should have shown its displeasure? Issued a strong statement? At least expelled the diplomat, not giving the Saudis so many days to let him peacefully go home?

They would have said the Congress government wants to maintain good relations with Sharia-following Saudi but doesn’t care about getting justice for two Nepali citizens. After all, Nepal is a Hindu majority country and why would the Congress worry about Hindus?

So what if Saudi would have expelled an Indian diplomat in return? How would that show India in a bad light? Wouldn’t it be obvious to anyone that it is Saudi which is in the wrong?

They would have artfully rebutted the argument that 2.4 million Indians work in Saudi Arabia. Firstly, they would have said that most of them must be Muslims, so of course the Congress is again doing minority appeasement. Just because Indians do the plumbing in Riyadh, the sickular Italian-led Congress government will let Saudi diplomats rape maids in India?!

The choicest of poisonous words would have been flooding your timeline. Oil? Seriously? Oil prices are falling like mercury in the arctic, Saudi’s importance in the world oil market is vanishing like vapour, and you are giving oil as the excuse to let Saudis rape Hindu women!

India’s national security advisor intervened to let go a Saudi rapist! Is he national security advisor or national insecurity advisor?

Then they would demolish the argument that India can’t annoy Saudi because it needs to lean on them to counter Saudi-Pakistan relations. You need good relations with the Saudi moneybags to tell them not to fund anti-India jihadis in Pakistan. To this they would have replied: you want India to give in to blackmail? This is why we need Narendra Modi to be prime minister. India needs a strong prime minister who travels around the world and tells global leaders that you can’t mess with India anymore.

Yet, all of this is taking place under a Modi government, and the right wing is largely silent. The one’s who have been speaking up, have been saying this:

Diplomatic immunity before Cong n AAPtards start barking...n shud remember #anderson n #bhopal what transpired then https://t.co/2IbAJEmBls

— TeamDada (@MistryMania) September 16, 2015

Of course it is always the Congress’ fault. If only the Congress had not let Warren Anderson escape from Bhopal 31 years ago, Modi ji wouldn’t have let rapist Saudi diplomat escape.

The Modi bhakt silence on the Modi government’s pusillanimity over the incident came after due outrage over the media. The problem wasn’t that the Modi government didn’t go after the Saudi diplomat. The problem was that the media wasn’t going after him.

Well the Saudi Ambassador belongs to 'Secular' community so I guess it's OK. No outrage frm sickular Cong, SP, AAP https://t.co/y60OGiGiEz

— Nationalist & Hindu (@NationlistHindu) September 10, 2015

As always the liberals were at fault. If only the right-wing could dethrone the liberal-dominated English media, good will prevail over evil.

One gentleman who looked at outr political parties rather than the media, looked for outrage from every party except the one that’s ruling the country:

https://twitter.com/NationlistHindu/status/641935715505471488

And here’s senior journalist and editor of a newspaper, Prabhu Chawla:

Surprise. For ill-liberal seculars rape by a Saudi diplomat is ignorable. All of them are conspicuous by their silence and invisibility.

— Prabhu Chawla (@PrabhuChawla) September 10, 2015

Mr Chawla hasn’t found the time to make the same condemnation of the government. Apparently, the “ill-liberal seculars” run the country.

A day after his condemnation of liberal silence, the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) protested outside the Saudi embassy. The women’s wing of the BJP is yet to be seen there.

AIDWA activists in Delhi protest Modi Govt decision 2 allow Saudi diplomat who raped couple of women 2 flee country. pic.twitter.com/yOg8d7Qgf5

— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) September 11, 2015

A day after that, another Modibhakt on Twitter didn’t see absence of liberal outrage. He found too much of it. And he wasn’t happy about it either.

Saudi ambassador rape issue must b dealt firmly.no doubt. But sickular outrage is just because f warm welcome f modi recently. Plain hatred

— vinay dubey (@rdvinay01) September 12, 2015

If liberals condemn a Saudi rapist, they are anti-Modi. If they don’t, they are minority appeasers and pro-Congress. Heads Modibhakts win, tales liberals lose.

When there is clear Hindutva Hypocrisy at work, you don’t find liberals trolling and abusing, accusing people of having their politics compromised with bribes. Like Modibhakts do:

Why all sickular parties pamper a giant minority? Is it because of Saudi Riyals ? https://t.co/yXgTR9i05x

— Ashish Sharma (@ashishright) September 13, 2015

To be fair, I did find one person being honest:

Sir @narendramodi did nt expect this from you. The way ur govt. Allowed that saudi criminal leave reminds of congress days.

— AmateurPoet (@Vikramadityain) September 16, 2015

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.