Wary of frisking, Somnath cancels Sydney trip

Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has called off his visit to Sydney, Australia, to attend the meeting of the executive committee of the Commonwealth Parliament Association because he does not want to be frisked at the airport there.

"My country's prestige is at stake and I don't want to compromise on it. I would prefer not to go," Chatterjee, who is currently in Manila attending an Inter Parliamentary Union meeting, said on Thursday.

"As Speaker of Parliament that represents the world's largest democracy, if I am not trusted in any of the countries, then I should not go there. We have to be exempted from security checks as heads of government and heads of state. Unless we respect each other, how can we have good relations? It is all the more painful when a fellow Commonwealth nation does this. It is very unfortunate. It is really an affront to India that some country insists on rigorous checks on its speaker in the name of security," Chatterjee said.