Absolutely! This is nothing but racial profiling. I would advise Indian passengers to use Air India rather than foreign airlines. Specially european ones. I am a frequent traveller within US and several times airport security officers have asked for extra screening on me just by looking at my face. At one point it reached a level wherein I wanted to give up my job to avoid this humiliation. A lot of those officers are discourteous and they think they are doing their job. They dont even bother to say sorry after the incident is over.
RE:racial profiling
by Hemant S on Aug 25, 2006 06:00 PM Permalink
Kshitij, I don't understand what would upset you. I am totally for racial/ethnic profiling. Even when i travel in US and being asked for extra security, i think that if searching me increases the chances of catching a potential bomber than why not. Muslims in india also cry of religious profiling, but if they are true indians than they would also take it in the same spirit. If 8 out of 10 guyz who are accused of drug peddling are african american, than its definite that keeping a watch on them would definitely increase the chances of cathcing drug peddlers.
RE:racial profiling
by Indian on Aug 25, 2006 06:28 PM Permalink
Mr. Raghvan and Rajiv, hundreds of muslims including my relatives are known to me (also bearded among them). The thing which is not known is the protocol to identify them as terrorist to eradicate them. Do you really think that to keep beard or choti or tilak may make a person terrorist? If yes, despite with all these three marks of terrorism, Narendra Modi is so innocent and not a terrorist! Please suggest other identification marks or protocols.
RE:racial profiling
by Sudhir on Aug 26, 2006 12:28 AM Permalink
Dear friend, I do not rule out racism completely. But, there is no reason to bring that issue in the light of recent incident on northwest flight. You will discover behaviors of discrimination among people of same religion, same culture. But, if certain behaviours are affecting lives of many innocent, then the subject of discrimination should be left out of the subject at hand.
RE:racial profiling
by raghwendra on Aug 28, 2006 10:04 AM Permalink
Dear Friend
Its good to know that you are a regular flier and i hope that you are having atlest some basic level of understanding so that you can discriminate between humiliation and security needs.
i am still not able to find a reason why you should leave your job.If u dont know US made checks to indian defence minister as well as Shahrukh Khan and they respected the decision of them bcoz they understand the need of this extra security.
I hope from next time you will be more considerate and rational before making decisons like leaving job because of security checks. take care
RE:racial profiling
by kshitij tumbde on Oct 05, 2006 04:02 AM Permalink
I totally respect the matter of extra security but my question is would they do the same thing if 10 whites were passing cell phones around? If northwest staff is incompetent to understand cultures and lifestyles of people to the country where they are flying to , why are they flying to India? Why are they allowed business in our country?
