What Does It Take to Make Your Own Embassy? In India, Not Much.
Not much, if you ask Harshvardhan Jain, a.k.a. 'Baron H.V. Jain.'
Rent a bungalow, hoist some flags, park a few luxury cars on the curb, photoshop yourself into pictures with world leaders, and — voilà! — you have your own embassy.
Until you are caught, that is.
The Indian police arrested Mr. Jain, 47, on Tuesday for running a fake embassy in a rented residential building in Ghaziabad, a city just outside New Delhi.
This house, the police said, alternately acted as the diplomatic mission for Westarctica or the Principality of Seborga or Poulbia Lodonia — depending on the day or the need or the hour.
These entities, technically, are 'micronations' — self-proclaimed sovereign states that lack a legal basis for their existence, as they are not recognized by other countries.
For the better part of a decade, such legal inconveniences did little to undermine Mr. Jain's operation.
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