On an official visit to the UK last year PM Narendra Modi, addressing a gathering of NRIs in London, said that holding an Indian passport was a token of pride, that such a document was highly prized.

I don’t know what protocols of immigration and passport control are observed by foreign countries when our Prime Minister visits them, but for the aam janta visitor – be it a student, a business person, or a tourist – having an Indian passport is not an advantage in gaining admission into the country travelled to but a handicap.

The UK, the US, and the EU take the fingerprints of all Indian visa applicants, and at passport control of the country being visited Indian travellers are subjected to a fingerprint check.

The procedure, which is like that of a suspected criminal being officially booked by a law enforcement agency, is shaming, all more so as travellers of other nationalities do not have to have their fingerprints taken and checked.

The reason that Indian passport holders are singled out for such treatment is obvious. Despite claims of India being the fastest growing major economy in the world, we remain a desperately poor nation, with a huge population of potential immigrants who try, and after succeed, in gaining illegal entry into more economically developed countries.

The result is that a Mukesh Ambani, say, when travelling abroad is treated as being below par as compared with a lavatory attendant who holds a UK, US, EU, Japanese, or any other passport of an economically advanced country.

The situation is unlikely to change any time soon, and Indian travellers will continue to be subjected to such shameful scrutiny.

There’s nothing to be done about it, except perhaps impose similar rules for passport holders of those countries which make Indians go through such immigration checks.

But then, considering how much we try to urge foreign investors to ‘Make in India’, and tourists to visit `Incredible India’, such retaliatory measures would be like cutting of our nose to spite our face.