Day 26# The British Bond
This news took India by storm, and articles have been making the rounds ever since it was made known by the mainstream media.
Firstpost.com published this report - a witty and sarcastic take on the issue.
Despite London being one of my favourite cities (among the ones I have visited yet), I feel angered enough to promote what the author, Sandip Roy has to say about having to pay a £3000 bond in order to be allowed entry into the United Kingdom.
I cannot understand how tourists can be asked to pay an equivalent of INR 277,000 over and above visa fees to step into UK territory. The implications on students, people who have families there and every other person who wants to visit but not stay there forever are most definitely damning.
What enrages me most is that, this decision is hardly one that will benefit the UKBA in leaps and bounds. If you read the news reports, you will figure more and more that not only is this policy degrading, it is also racist. I have a problem in believing that applicants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana and the only ‘high-risk’ candidates applying for a visa to the UK.
When I mentioned this to someone I know, who is the proud owner of a British passport, I was told - yes, it serves them right. All these Indians and Bangladeshis, infiltrating their country and refusing to leave. I don’t know why - but I was reminded of the East India Company. Needless to say, a dirty look was thrown their way.
I don’t really care much at this point about the Kohinoor, or the fact that seeing ‘Spotted dick’ on a menu just makes me want to throw up - but I have no doubt that ‘VisitBritain’ in India is definitely going to out of business soon. Despite my love for the overcast skies, the London Underground, the street food and the Victorian charm, this has gotten out of hand. Like I was telling a friend the day I read of this news, the British gave us Benedict Cumberbatch - but even that might not be enough to make it all better.
5 Comments
hahaha... I like the post.. :D
I don't justify that rule.. It's just coming out of a few britishers in the parliament who haven't farted in a while.. all that fart has worked it's way up to their heads! I feel... I was commenting on your colleagues sentiment.. Anyway.. we can have that offline some time.. :)
And now I'll put a post too for this one.. the blogging community is hot with this.. me like!!!
Also. This is a more fitting reply: http://shovonc.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/india-to-charge-britain-for-overstaying-till-1947/
Well, I obviously cannot disagree with the fact that the Western world has given us opportunities that have made many an Indian life better. But there have been no free lunches - most of the times, they have not been gracious or respectful and treated brown people as scum. The takers of the jobs or the university seats have either been those who could not be denied it because of merit, or those who bought them - in which case the economies benefitted from the monies.
Without doubt we have problems amidst us - and that is as shameful as it gets. But I hardly see any cause for the UK to take such a step. They want to stop migration? So the immigrant problem they have is only owed to the six countries mentioned here? I find that very difficult to believe.
I don't agree with my colleague/friend/associate at all. More than anything because it was demeaning to say such a thing. Many of the Indians in the UK (and maybe even elsewhere) are everyday janitors, cleaners, cabbies and do the other not so blue collared jobs. If the Brits really did want those jobs, there wouldn't be any place for colonisation.
Oh and the middle east and Canada too.. We're practically all over the world.. We're the new colonizers along with the Chinese. Only we don't come in ships. We've crept in silently for over two decades now and colonized continents one by one.
In a sense I understand what your colleage / friend / associate says. While you can always say we tolerated the British for 200 yrs, it was our mistake ! :)
Also, as I see it, we Indians aren't able to tolerate Brahmins getting to good positions because they're apparently 'upper caste'. And the brahmins cannot take the other caste people getting into institutions because a lot of them are still stuck up with associating hygine with lower class without taking any responsibility to clear the mess. When marathis can't take biharis driving autos in Maharashtra and likewise north indians in south India, then I'm not sure I want to blame the britishers or the Americans. They've been more than gracious to have us there and take their jobs and university seats.
Don't you think? :)