Most Indians still treat their ‘servants’ like slaves, and we still deny that even in the 21^st century, we are a racist, feudal, lot!

Your exploitation of poor lower caste countrymen doesn’t stop even if you become a High Commissioner and part of the international jet-set! Just imagine the embarrassment Indian nationals in New Zealand feel after the High Commissioner for India Ravi Thapar and his wife were accused of assaulting a “slave” who worked in their kitchen.

The couple seemed to have a preference for Indian household staff who knew no English. About three weeks ago, a harried worker tried to ‘escape’ to freedom. The worker, believed to be a cook, walked nearly 20km from the High Commissioner’s house to Wellington one night where ‘he was found by a member of the public in a distressed state’, reports a NZ website. He was taken to a police station and ended up staying several nights at the Wellington Night Shelter.

Through an interpreter, the cook narrated that he was kept in slavery. He said he was physically assaulted by Sharmila Thapar and that Ravi Thapar threatened to beat him up as well. (Of course, being slapped or beaten by an employer may be common in rural UP, MP or Bihar , but even the threat to beat up an employee isn’t taken lightly by the international community). Luckily for the Thapars, the cook, for the obvious reasons, declined to make a formal complaint. He just wanted get away from them and to return to India.

Both Thapar and his wife, Sharmila, have declined to be interviewed by police and have barred other members of the mission from speaking to authorities. Sharmila Thapar refused to answer reporters’ questions at the house. The NZ police decided not to press charges because the worker declined to lay a formal complaint.

A neighbour who did not want to be named said they were shocked by the allegations. “I thought she was a very nice person. She was very kind and very giving.” The neighbour recalled a previous houseboy at the residence who had returned home to India before being replaced by the domestic servant at the centre of the allegations. “He was extremely shy and couldn’t speak English.”

The NZ press believes that India has formally recalled High Commissioner. A few days ago, a moving van arrived at his $1.1 million Lower Hutt residence neighbours said.

Now, let’s see what the Indian media does with the story!

  India, slavery