Battered Indian Baby In The  Extended Custody Of German Child Care Must Be Pleasing To Major Trade Partner China

A seven-month old Gujarati baby, Ariha Shah, hurt accidentally, badly enough to need hospitalisation, was taken over by the German Youth Welfare Office or Jugendamt on September 23^rd 2021, and held on to ever since. The child had a head bump, and injuries in the perineal area.

The Jugendamt, established in 1924, during the Weimar Republic, still feels like the Nazi midnight knock.  It has a track record of being arbitrary and particularly strict with ethnic minorities and immigrant workers such as Turkish, Polish and, in this instance, Indian people. They have the power to seize children away from their parents at will, for a plethora of reasons, including the presumed inability of a poor parent to look after its child.

The Jugendamt, like some over enthusiastic traffic crane operator on the New Delhi streets, gets paid by the German government based on the number of children it seizes and places in foster care.

 The German attitude towards India two years ago was very different from what it is becoming now. It was exemplified by the prejudiced and negative reporting in major publications such as Der Spiegel and broadcast media such as DW.

It must be noted that Germany was, and is, China’s biggest trading partner in Europe, and whilst ties have loosened after the Covid pandemic, the retirement of former Chancellor Merkel, and the advent of the Ukraine War with Russia, they are still very significant. And Russia is increasingly seen by the US, the EU and NATO as part of an axis with China despite its long-held supplies of oil and gas to Germany.

Current Chancellor Scholz, at the head of the biggest economy in the EU, now gone into recession, and soon to be overtaken by India, was amongst the first to visit Beijing after Covid. He was followed by the head of the second biggest EU economy France, its leader Emmanuel Macron.  The trade dependencies are enormous, as are the hard to break value chains.

China is always pleased to see any kind of anti-India stance from its European counterparts, and the bad publicity it generates against India.

The German child welfare organisation described baby Ariha’s injuries as ‘horrific’ and in line with their understanding of child abuse.  They took the matter to court advocating the child not ever be returned to her parents and the case has been ongoing for 20 months since. However, it is likely to come to a decision this very month.

An additional allegation of child sexual abuse of the baby was investigated but dismissed by the German authorities. The police case against the parents was also closed in February 2022. But the case against the parents was only dropped, said the Germans, because it was impossible to prove if the child’s injuries had been inflicted by the parents, relatives, or other people.

That a certain amount of carelessness operated, seems more than evident, no matter how loudly the parents proclaim their concern now.

The child, now two years old, is still in custody of the Germans, despite repeated representations from the parents, Dhara and Bhavesh Shah, now back in Mumbai, India but still working in Germany on German visas. They have demonstrated outside the German Consulate in Mumbai, along with other supporters. They have recently approached Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde for help. He, in turn has written to the EAM urging him to meet and listen to what the parents have to say.

In addition, India’s Embassy in Berlin and the MEA at the mundane official level of spokesperson Arindam Bagchi, have been urging the German authorities to return the baby to India, and even Indian foster-care if the parents are not deemed acceptable.

As many as 59 Indian parliamentarians from both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, from 19 political parties, including the CPM, have written to the German Ambassador in New Delhi. They are asking for the repatriation of the child to India as she is an Indian national who deserves to grow up in the Indian cultural milieu.  They have collectively expressed the fear that the child’s Indianness may be compromised over the prolonged stay under the German child care system. The German Ambassador in India, Philipp Ackerman, has not commented, citing privacy issues.

The Germans in turn have tried, and recently succeeded, in placing the child with Indian foster parents in Germany. Ariha Shah has recently been shifted from one foster care parent to a specialised foster care arrangement, they said. However, they have firmly suggested the child is better off in perpetuity under their foster care.

The matter was raised when German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock visited India in December 2022, but no action has been taken to disrupt the court handling of the affair.

A similar situation obtained in Norway not very long ago, but due to the good offices of then Opposition leader and later EAM Sushma Swaraj , two children, siblings, were eventually returned by the country’s child services organisation  after they were taken away from the parents on similar charges.

However, there is a marked change in the geopolitical scenario now that may affect this case.

In recent times, there have been several high-level visits between Berlin and New Delhi, including two Modi visits to Germany in 2022, and a visit to New Delhi by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2023. Scholz is expected to come again for the G20 Summit later this year.

The German defence minister Boris Pistorius is currently visiting his counterpart in New Delhi, following on from the visit of the US Defence Secretary.

The Germans, it is reported, are likely to collaborate in the building of Rs. 50,000 crores worth of submarines in India, and the Americans are about to finalise a joint venture to produce GE fighter engines in Bengaluru, India. The French have also made several offers of military manufacturing cooperation.

This trend, of the NATO countries coming to show solidarity with India in the face of the perceived Russian-Chinese axis, and threat to world peace, is likely to only grow in pace and momentum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going on a State Visit to the US this month which is likely to provide a huge momentum to the relationship. The American establishment has been making a series of highly supportive statements on India lately, including one praising the robustness of Indian democracy. The European governments are likely to take their cue from this strong official support from the US government for India.

This is in sharp contrast to routine and intemperate criticism from some Left Liberal quarters, such as the Washington Post, The New York Times, The CNN, The BBC, The Economist, The Guardian, George Soros, various Islamist and Khalistani organisations et al. However, they are on the fringe, and the establishment is firmly with the Modi government.

The Ariha Shah affair may not  need to be officially dealt with at the upper reaches of the Indian and German governments, but it is likely to come to a satisfactory end in the near future nevertheless.

(1,175 words)

June 6^th, 2023

For: Firstpost/News18.com

Gautam Mukherjee