External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Monday sought a report from the Indian mission on United States child service authorities in New Jersey restricting an Indian couple access to their one-year-old son after he underwent surgery for an injury.
Official sources said that Mr. Krishna has sought a report from the mission on the US-based Indian couple, hailing from Balurghat in West Bengal, being given limited access by American authorities to their son.
Nirmal and Sonarani Saha, the grandparents of the child Indrasish, had said on Sunday that he fell from the bed on August 9 at the couple’s New Jersey home when his mother Pamela was cooking and his father Debas was in office.
Indrashish was immediately rushed to a state-owned hospital where he was admitted by doctors and underwent a surgery, Mr. Nirmal Saha had said.
After Indrashish got well, his parents wanted to take him home but the hospital authorities refused to hand him over to them as the Child Protection Organisation alleged that the parents had failed to take proper care of him, the grandfather said.
He said he has appealed to the President, the Prime Minister and the West Bengal Chief Minister for help, and added that his son Debashis rang up Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and appealed for help.
Mr. Mukherjee told Debashis that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
It is good that the Minister sought a report from the Indian Embassy,
the Govt. is obliged to do that much for NRIs. But, the story of a one-
year old requiring surgery for falling from a bed is hard to believe.
Where these parents not using cots? Even if the kid was lying in a
normal bed, a fall from such a small height couldn't have required
surgery, unless there was some very sharp object on the floor, which
means the parents were negligent. It is all very mysterious, and perhaps
the U.S. Childcare services are right.
Most U.S. homes have carpet or soft flooring (such as wood). Very few have hard stone or granite floors. There is very little chance for a baby that falls out of bed to need surgery. I have had 3 kids who have fallen from bed many times and have not even needed any medical care. There is more to this case than what the parents are saying. Obviously the hospital found some evidence of injury not consistent with falling off a bed. The Indian authorities should just let the American child protective services handle this issue. No need for the central government of India to get involved.
Why should the Indian government intervene in this matter? When people
visit foreign countries they should ensure that they observe and obey
all laws there. If they don't, there is no use blaming anyone else. Now
this is an internal legal matter in the United States; why should the
Indian government spend our tax money on intervening in this matter?
This couple should hire a lawyer in the US and take care of this
themselves. There is no reason for the Indian government to spend our
hard-earned tax rupees on this.
IN the wake of very busy geo-political calendar and hectic lobbying for various global issues Mt. Minister has nothing more important than to seek a individual reports on local strcitly enforced and foolproof policies. Not to say that the individual issue might be important for the concerned family. But Mr. Krishna interfering with local policies is like Hillay Clinton meddling with divorce of a US couple staying in India. Mr. Minister should check his priority list.
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