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Showing posts from February, 2012

India and Its Raymond Davises

At first sight, the killing of two Indian fishermen by Italian marines off the coast of Kerala and the murder of three Pakistanis by an American government official exactly about a year ago seem to be starkly different. However, scratch the surface and the similarities can be startling: There was an absolute denial of wrongdoing on the part of the accused (for obvious reasons) – the American, Raymond Davis, which it would be revealed later that he was a covert CIA agent, claimed that he fired in self-defence; the Italian marines, too, made a similar claim, despite others aboard the fishing trawler asserting that they weren’t in possession of arms. Note that Indian fishermen are not allowed by law to carry arms. Davis and the marines, despite their “innocence”, were incarcerated swiftly. Their respective homelands, the USA and Italy respectively, swung into action, demanding their immediate release citing international human rights