First let me state the immigration rules. Any foreign citizen must apply for a visa before they leave their home country to India. India does not grant temporary visas on arrival except when (a) the arriving person has Indian Origin AND (b) The passenger has arrived in India on a last minute purchased ticket for a family or medical or personal emergency.
Clearly none of these criteria are fully satisfied here. But that being said I have no idea how the French guy got his visa. That is discrimination. Also they should have waited for 2 hours.
Now imagine you landing in the US with your kid and his/her passport leaving his/her US visa back home. Do you think the USCIS (INS) officials would show you any kind of leniency of letting him/her in? NO WAY!!
That being said, I know of people (Indians) who landed here in the US without their papers and they were kept at the airport until they could ask someone home to fax copies of their documenst which tehy were able to verify thru the computer files on these guys. Once they did that they allowed them in on a 30 day permit within which they had to go to Washington DC and show their original documents and get their stay extended
