A procession with 24-hour detention in India of contradictions – 18/02/2019

"My love forever for India, land of contradictions and tensions In the land of spiritual purity, the greatest pollution In the land where the spaces of silence are sacred, the deafening noises (horns). In the world's largest democracy, caste and untouchable In the land of the green revolution, the lack of protein In greater poverty, there is real hope. The businessman Gustavo Grobocopatel, one of 85 leaders who accepted the government's call to join the business mission, gratified the contrasts that prevented, after his fifth trip by the Asian giant. This is not the only one: it is also considered by Argentineans who live or frequent the country. Strictly speaking, it is enough to stroll in hotels ready to receive Western tourists to be surprised by the diversity of these lands.

In the delegation accompanying Mauricio Macri, they felt it: in the presidential "capsule" – the ring that surrounds the visits of heads of state – it cost them to connect with the needs of India urgent and with the congestion of traffic in the streets they both heard about. This is because, although in India, insecurity is not a problem – at least not as serious as it is in Argentina -, it could be presumed to be harmful given high levels of poverty. country registers; guard ordered by the local government escorted to the sun and in the shade.

Look also

Clarin Bulletins

What you need to know today | The most important news of the day to read in ten minutes

Monday to Friday morning.

The severity of the troops surprised many. And not Macri, who is naturally already used to pressing. The legislators, who tend to move with some ease in the president's travels, have this time suffered from the climate of suffocation. One of them has exposed in terms of football before Clarin: "We could never remove the mark, they do not allow you to do anything outside the capsule".

The group of legislators who make up the deputies of Cambiemos can testify Emilio Monzó, Martín Lousteau, Marcelo Wechsler; and senators Oscar Castillo (UCR-Catamarca) and Alfredo Luenzo (PJ Chubut) On Sunday, after a nap forced to recover energy after the trip, they wanted to escape, as well as over a national official, to know Old Delhi, the ancient city of Delhi, which converges, for example, with the majesty of the Red Fort. , a palace built in the seventeenth century and only ten years ago was declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco; with precarious constructions, streets that form a maze, chaos of continuous traffic, tourists with expensive cameras in hand without risk of theft and people living in extreme poverty.

Look also

At this place, doing a kind of "crash course" of India, wanted to be part of the Argentine contingent. But, when they threatened to get off the "van" and walk the streets with the stream of people wandering every day, the guard prevented them. In principle, some thought it obeyed the need to be careful not to suffer setbacks. But it immediately appeared that there was something else: would they have tried to prevent an official delegation from seeing the most neglected part of Delhi? This is at least what those who have endured the intransigence of the guard have interpreted it. So, on the way back to the hotel, one of them orchestrated a plan to flout the mark: he proposed to go down abruptly and climb each up to a "autorickshaw" or "mototaxi" , a motorized tricycle similar to a motorcycle, but with roof included and a canvas on the sides serving as "door".

At that time, they received a resounding "no". "We said: let 's see what India looks like without a security capsule, and to distract them, the idea was that each of them presents themselves for a different camp and ultimately we We found everything in the same place, but the cops did not give up and did not let us go, "complains the manager. Clarin. This is just one example of the rigor with which the people who exercise power in India can be – there too – it is another contradiction – that they can be the most hospitable and the best hosts.

Look also

There is, however, a contradiction that hurts even more. When he was unprepared from a country like Argentina, where the debate on legal abortion has divided so many waters, it is even more surprising to hear that in India, a country " patriarchal, "a survey conducted several months ago by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, it is the" worst country in the world to be a woman ", the legal abortion has been in effect since 1971. The surprise has disappeared and becomes even more sad when data on "selective" abortion appear: according to the organization Alliance for the Defense of Freedom (ADF), more than half a million abortions are performed each year after the couple he discovers that he is expecting a woman girl. According to a report published in the scientific journal The Lancet, this figure exceeds 12 million cases over the past 30 years.