Norwegian Princess cares for surrogate twins of gay staffer in Delhi incognito

While the Indian couple sits in jail and they work their way out of the mess due to difference in cultural norms, Norwegian princess was in India unannounced for a strange errand.

Same sex marriage has been legalized in Norway since 2009, while same sex partnerships were registered since 1993.  However, paying surrogate parents for producing kids is a sensitive topic.

The Princess Mette-Marit was in a quandry.  One of her staffer – also her friend – and his husband (gay couple) had twins via a surrogate mother in India.  The staffer couldn’t get the visa.  The princess – well aware of the surrogate controversy – with the welfare of the babies and her friend in heart boarded a plane using her diplomatic passport to Delhi.  To care for the kids.

Armed with a diplomatic passport that granted her immediate access, the future queen jumped on a plane in late October when the employee, who is also a friend, and his husband were unable to travel to care for their newborns. “For me, this is about two babies lying alone in a New Delhi hospital,” Mette-Marit said in a statement. “I was able to travel and wanted to do what I could.” She did not alert Indian authorities and spent several days with the babies at the Manav Medicare Centre, where staff assumed the wife of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon was a nanny. While the princess was away, her name continued to appear in the official palace calendar and her absence from a parliamentary dinner was not explained. A relative of the two fathers eventually took over from Mette-Marit and the fathers received a visa in November, when they brought the babies back to Norway, the palace added.

It is amazing to see a country with such a big heart, unassuming Royalty, space for diverse lifestyle and yet laws that do not consider diversity of views (as shown by the Indian couple’s case).  Or is it that diversity of lifestyle is only acceptable as long as diversity plays out in accordance with THEIR definition of “diversity”?

As some call it the Western Universalism.  Everything is equal, as long as it is same as the Western norms.  There is a fineline between Exceptionalism and Universalism here.  Wonder if we understand that.

In any case, politicians of India would do well to learn humility from the Nordic leaders.