I think all the parties involved here have erred one way or another. Starting with the couple, leaving a travel document home is probably one of the gravest and inexcusable mistakes.
The airline staff should have checked the documents when the family checked in.
The officials in India, while legally had a right to deport the children, could have been more sympathetic and given some more time for the papers to be faxed.
I have read many comments about the same treatment here in US. One of my "fresh off the boat" Indian colleague took his wife to Niagara on July 4th weekend and kept driving till he realized he was in Canada. When they tried to reenter US, as expected, they were detained by the US immigration authorities. However, they were given all the time to call their friends who eventually faxed their visa documents. The whole process took six hours and at the end, the officers said "sorry but this is the law" and also they were very courteous the whole time.
Also, I don't know the connection of this story to the whole "white-brown" thing. There could be 101 reasons why the French gentlemen was given the transit visa.
