The world, watch out, don’t dare to frisk our Comrade Chatterjee

The Lok Sabha Speaker, already in Manila, has refused to make the journey to Sydney for a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting starting Monday because the Australians have told him in very clear terms that they are not going to bend airport security rules to let him in.

‘‘My country’s prestige is at stake and I don’t want to compromise on it. As Speaker of the Lok Sabha which represents the world’s largest democracy, if I am not trusted in any of the countries, then I should not go there. We have to be exempted from security checks as heads of government and heads of state,’’ Chatterjee said from Manila where he’s attending an Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting.

‘‘Unless we respect each other, how can we have good relations. It is all the more painful when a fellow Commonwealth country does this… It is an affront to India that some country insists on rigorous checks on the Speaker in the name of security.’’

The Speaker can expect support from at least one quarter: Papua New Guinea today said it would suspend an Australian programme because its Prime Minister Michael Somare was told by Brisbane airport officials to remove his shoes. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who’s expected in New Delhi in June, has refused to apologise.

Chatterjee was supposed to attend the mid-year conference of the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association from April 10. South Block officials said Chatterjee wrote to External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh who directed that the protest be followed-up. Prabhat Shukla, Indian High Commissioner in Canberra, took up the issue with senior Australian authorities today. With John McCarthy, Australian High Commissioner in India, away in Bhutan, sources said that his deputy Michelle Marginson will be called to the Ministry of External Affairs tomorrow to convey India’s position.

Canberra maintains that it does not have any special provisions for the Lok Sabha Speaker and that senior delegates to Australia have to undergo the routine security check.