Crossing boundaries

While the former, at the urging of the excitable MDMK supremo, Vaiko, stated for the record on Monday that Al Aazmi would not be deported back to Kuwait, the latter expedited the woman’s release, personally feted the couple and assured them that she would attend their wedding.

She has also urged the Centre to provide Al Aazmi with a permanent resident status, before making her a full citizen.

Which is all very nice and a great public relations opportunity for both Advani and Jayalalithaa. Who doesn’t like playing the role of Kama Deva once in a way? But there are, alas, important issues that are being overlooked as a consequence.

The fact is that Al Aazmi committed an illegal act by trying to enter this country on a false passport and the immigration authorities at Chennai airport did the correct thing by arresting her and sending her to the Vellore women’s prison.

There has, in fact, been a great deal of disinformation at play in this case. Initial reports maintained that the girl could be stoned to death for violating Kuwaiti law and customs if she were to be sent back and that, in any case, she was expecting a child, all of which were denied by Al Aazmi herself after she came out of prison.

For some much needed perspective on this case, let us also remember that it is precisely for the crime of travelling to this country on a fake passport that Masood Azhar found himself behind bars.

There is, of course, no comparison between a young Kuwaiti woman who only wanted to live with the man she had fallen in love with and a hardened jehadi, trained to commit acts of terrorism.

But every government worth its name has found it expedient to conform to the letter and spirit of the law rather then allow personal discretion to settle such matters.

Both security considerations and the imperative to appear even-handed in the treatment of various cases, dictate that this must, indeed, be so.

Take, for instance, the incident involving the young Cuban boy, Elian, whose mother died at sea while trying to enter the US mainland with her son.

While the boy’s Miami relatives pleaded that he remain in the US, citing grandiose issues like the boy’s right to freedom to buttress their case, the legal authorities in the US, going strictly by the law, ruled that Elian must go back to his father in Cuba.

The law is an ass — it has been well established — but why must we go out of our way to render it even more asinine than it is?