SPY EYES

The Government of India hurriedly transferred its Deputy Consul General in New York and stationed her in the United Nations so that she enjoys diplomatic immunity from American law – which she broke multiple times when she hired another Indian as her domestic help

Devyani Khobragade, India’s former deputy Consul General in New York, stands accused of lying on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, an Indian national. U.S. prosecutors say the maid received $3 per hour for her work, which is one-third of the minimum wage that is paid by law to any worker in the state of New York. However, because the Indian diplomat was strip-searched at the airport – by a female TSA (U.S. Transport Security Administration) official, a luxury that many Muslim women and other women are deprived of – and was subjected to the legal ramifications of what she had done, the Indian government and society (which has deliberately not been told of the entirety of the facts, and of how one Indian diplomat trampled on the rights of another Indian worker) have reacted disproportionately to what they call “diplomatic muscle-flexing” and have created a diplomatic uproar that has led to tensions between India and the U.S. The extent of these tensions is such that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry immediately called Indian National Security Advisor to personally express “regret” over the incident: an obvious sign that despite U.S. law being broken, America wants to appease India and was scrambling to contain the furor, however unwarranted it was. News that Khobragade was strip-searched has chilled U.S.-Indian relations, and despite Kerry’s “regret”, India’s state and society protested in many forms.

It goes without saying that the Indian diplomat was treated leniently despite the fact that she broke American law, and that the Indian government and people are completely overreacting without facing facts and considering the entire episode an instance of diplomatic muscle-flexing rather than an opportunity to let the law take its course and punish the guilty without fear or favour. It has taken the U.S. prosecutor for Manhattan – Preet Bharara, a U.S. attorney of Indian origin – to set the record straight. He calls the Indian government’s response – the confiscation of U.S. diplomats’ consular passes all over India, the revocation of other diplomatic privileges for U.S. diplomats in India, the requirement of filing unusual and lengthy records pertaining to domestic staff hired by U.S. diplomats and embassy personnel in India, records and information regarding consular staff hired by the U.S. in India, and the removal of security barricades from outside the U.S. embassy in India – as an “unfounded” reason to create an “inflammatory atmosphere” between the two countries. Bharara blasted the “misinformation and factual inaccuracy” surrounding the case, especially when it came to reporting in India and what the Indian government and state told its people, who were already out on the streets of India burning the American flag and chanting slogans against the United States. In addition to retaliating against U.S. diplomats with measures that included revoking diplomat ID cards and consular passes that brought certain privileges and demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in U.S. Embassy households, the Indian government also withdrew import licenses that allowed the commissary at the U.S. Embassy to import alcohol and food.

“One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?”, Bharara said in his lengthy and detailed statement. “The question then may be asked: Is it for U.S. prosecutors to look the other way, ignore the law and the civil rights of victims (again, here an Indian national), or is it the responsibility of the diplomats and consular officers and their government to make sure the law is observed?”

Indian officials claim that the consular official’s treatment was “heavy-handed”, complaining that she was strip-searched and claiming she was thrown in a cell with drug addicts. They’ve retaliated on several fronts, including by dragging away security barriers from outside the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, as mentioned above. Both Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi refused to meet a Congressional delegation from the U.S., in a clear sign that this diplomatic muscle-flexing by India (NOT the U.S.) is being done in an election year to show the India audience that the incumbent government still has a “sovereign and independent foreign policy”. India’s foreign minister has demanded that the U.S. drop federal charges against her – a clear indication that while U.S. citizens, Indian immigrants to the U.S., and even other diplomats in the U.S., should be subject to the law, Indian diplomats should have blanket immunity from everything, including the mistreatment of another Indian citizen who is employed by Indian diplomats to lowly positions such as household help.

For their part, U.S. officials acknowledge that Khobragade was strip-searched, but described it as standard procedure, which it is. Bharara further clarified that this was done in a private setting by a female officer – which was a courtesy extended to the diplomat, as female travelers and passengers are not usually strip-searched by female officials of the TSA. Bharara also disputed many of the claims about her treatment, especially unfounded and biased claims that are making the headlines in Indian media. He said she was, among other things, given coffee and offered food while detained.

Bharara said Khobragade, who has pleaded not guilty, wasn’t handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children. Further, he said, she was alleged to have treated the housekeeper (also of Indian origin) “illegally in numerous ways,” that she was paying her “far below” the minimum wage allowed in the state, and having her work far more than the amount of time contracted. Further, he said she was alleged to have created a second contract that was concealed from the U.S. government. In addition to these charges, Bharara said the victim’s family had to be brought to the United States amid an attempt in India to “silence her”: because amid the uproar over American treatment of an Indian diplomat-turned-criminal, the family of the Indian housekeeper who had the bad fortune of being hired by this Indian diplomat – and was later abused and manipulated by the diplomat – was being threatened with dire consequences while they were in India. Therefore, the family of the housekeeper was immediately brought over to the U.S. so that they could escape the mad, ignorant mob that was raging in India.

Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters on Thursday that Khobragade should never have been arrested, and that the housekeeper should have been arrested instead. Apparently the Indian Minister has no knowledge of U.S. law, and should pay heed to his fellow countryman Bharare about who should be charged (and arrested), and whose rights should be protected (because they have been denied in the past).

A day after Khobragade was arrested and released – and after she was transferred to the Indian mission to the U.N. so that she could enjoy complete immunity from U.S. despite the fact that she was guilty (and because the Indian government and External Affairs Ministry knew that she was guilty and would be charged despite her diplomat status in the U.S., which is why they transferred her to the U.N.) – an official in India’s External Affairs Ministry told the Associated Press that Khobragade claimed to Indian authorities in July that the maid had disappeared and was trying to blackmail her. According to the official, who was obviously trying to obfuscate the reality of what the diplomat had done, the diplomat’s housekeeper said she would not report Khobragade if she agreed to pay her more money and change her visa status to allow her to work elsewhere in the U.S. Khobragade filed a complaint with New York police and New Delhi police, the official said. Though it was not clear what action was taken in the U.S. – and it is very likely that no action was taken in the state of New York, since the only action that was taken was against the diplomat, not against the housekeeper – but New Delhi police issued a warrant for the maid’s arrest if she returned to India: it is unclear when this warrant was issued, or when Khobragade’s complaint was made to New Delhi police and when it was acted upon. It is very likely that the origin of the documents with New Delhi police could have really occurred after Khobragade was arrested in the U.S., to give plausibility to the Indian cover story being generated to hide the shame that would be brought upon Indian diplomats if the truth was to be known, and also to allow the Indian mobs to run amok on the street – despite their ignorance and lack of knowledge about the facts, which are deliberately being distorted to achieve India’s interests.

Khobragade, who was India’s deputy consul general in New York, would face a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration if convicted. She has said she has full diplomatic immunity. The Department of State disputes that, saying hers is more limited to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.

Khobragade’s work status remains unclear: Indian Consulate spokesman Venkatasamy Perumal said she was transferred Tuesday to India’s U.N. mission, but he declined to comment further, and requests for comment to the U.N. mission’s first secretary were not immediately returned.

In an email published in Indian media – that sounds more like a sob story than a clarification from a seasoned diplomat posted to an important country – Khobragade said she was treated like a common criminal. “I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity,” she wrote. As is obvious with the response of U.S. authorities and of U.S. attorney Bharara, Khobragade was never handcuffed, and therefore, she lied in the email that she sent to Indian media, which was published by the latter to further inflame Indian national sentiment against the treatment of one of its diplomats and of an Indian woman by U.S. authorities – regardless of who is right and who is wrong, regardless of the fact that Khobragade broke the law in a criminal fashion thinking that she enjoys diplomatic immunity and therefore can do whatever she wants to do.

The truth is that Khobragade was arrested by the Department of State’s diplomatic security team – according to protocol, since the diplomatic security teams of the U.S. State Department are responsible for the security of U.S. diplomats abroad – and was then handed over to U.S. Marshals in New York – again, as per protocol, since police would not have jurisdiction over the diplomat, and the U.S. Marshals Service is the main authority in arresting and detaining senior officials of the U.S., including legislators and judicial figures of a state or of the U.S. federation. She was later released after posting U.S.$ 250,000 bail – this bail would not have been paid if Indian authorities at home and Indian diplomatic authorities in the U.S. knew that Khobragade was innocent and could not be charged under U.S. law because she enjoyed diplomatic immunity that covered her actions and transgressions.

The fact of the matter is that the Indian state and media is deliberately hiding all the facts, revealing only a few facts and creating the rest: the truth is that diplomat DID break the law of the U.S., and that the suffering of another Indian citizen is being concealed so that the Indian state can ride the wave of agitation in Indian society and pressurize the U.S. diplomatic community in India as well as the State Department and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. All this is being done because elections are around the corner in India, and the government as well as the opposition are intent on riding the wave of the public’s sentiment on the basis of “teaching the U.S. a lesson” and thus showing that they have an “independent and sovereign foreign policy” when in fact India is an American puppet in South Asia and the new U.S. front-line in the region as the main competitor to China both economically and military (though this is wishful thinking on the part of both India and the U.S., since India’s economy is no match for China and India’s military ought to remember the 1962 war and realize that China’s military has far outpaced India in terms of efficiency and modernization).

As time goes by, more will become clear, and it is not unwarranted to presume or posit what is most likely to happen: Khobragade will definitely be charged, and if found guilty by the competent U.S. court (or a court in New York), she will be sentenced to jail and to pay the fine, unless the Indian consulate or embassy appeals in the competent appellate judiciary or in the U.S. superior court; if Khobragade is appointed to India’s U.N. mission or transferred to another country, she will escape American justice (but will have to face another round of strip-searching and bawling – as she stated herself in her email – and will eventually land in jail if she makes the mistake of going on U.S. soil after getting convicted); that the Indian housekeeper (who is also a woman and an Indian citizen, like Khobragade) who was employed by Khobragade – and her family – will never be able to return to their homeland even though they did nothing wrong, only because truth and righteousness is on their side but their own government and people – the Indian government and the Indian people – are not on their side (they are on the side of the person who abused and manipulated them, that is, the Indian diplomat); and most importantly, the entire matter will be forgotten once elections are over with in India, and whichever government comes to power will toe the American line on major issues like India’s relations with Iran. The final truth is made obvious by India’s own foreign policy actions, designs and decisions over the last two decades: its relations with Afghanistan (including strategic agreements to replace the U.S. when it leaves in 2014), its intentions of reaching out towards (and apparently overreaching into) Central Asia and Asia Pacific, and most importantly (for both India and the U.S.) India’s posturing towards China, all have a certain and very peculiar symmetry with U.S. foreign policy for each area and region in question. At the same time, India will have leeway on taking its own “independent, sovereign” path when it comes to small, minor, and irrelevant issues (except for when they are used to create media hype and are “sold” to the general public to make it appear like India is doing something like a major power does) like diplomatic transgressions such as Khobragade’s, and on posturing against Pakistan (since India knows it can’t go too far on overt posturing against its eastern neighbour without provoking China – or inviting the “concern” of the U.S. (whose troops in Afghanistan, supply lines and general military health, all depend on the friendliness of Islamabad) – and ultimately, because Pakistan can “take care of itself” when it comes to its traditional enemy, India).

It is extremely sad that, instead of accepting her mistake, acting like a mature diplomat, and having her government consult the American government – the government of the country where she was posted and whose laws applied to her, regardless of her diplomatic immunity – to chart out a mutually acceptable path out of the diplomatic standoff that has been created (and which could have been easily avoided), Devyani Khobragade has inevitably become the Indian “Raymond Davis” in New York: even though she hasn’t committed any murders, she certainly has no right to be a diplomat, since she does not know how to treat a fellow Indian citizen – of the same gender, one might add – so how can one expect her to truly and adequately represent the government of India, the interests of India, and most importantly, the people of India?!

ZONEASIA-PK