Kanwal Sibal
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s a former head of the Indian Foreign service how do you see the Devyani Khobragade episode?
A lot of work had been done by both sides in recent years to bring the two countries closer together, to the point that we were celebrating the transformation of bilateral ties. Lately, levels of enthusiasm had gone down, with talk of the relationship “plateauing”. This latest episode has struck a serious blow to the relationship. The US side is entirely to blame for this. For a wage dispute you do not arrest a diplomat from a friendly country and administer him or her such repugnant treatment.The US seems to be treating the Sangeeta Richard case as an instance of human trafficking as they claim she was underpaid.
Please not that the case against our diplomat has been filed by the US government, not the maid. For this they have latched on to the visa fraud excuse and human trafficking. This is truly absurd. The maid went to the US legitimately with the diplomat on a visa affixed by the US Embassy on her official passport. The US government is claiming that our diplomat promised the maid $4500 a month, a sum more than the diplomat’s salary. The Visa Officers in the US Embassy are not so stupid to overlook such an obvious falsity in the application, yet they gave the visa. Why? The maid then separately accepts Rs 30,000 per month wages from the diplomat, which is a very attractive sum for any Indian domestic staff. When in New York the maid absconds as she wants to stay back in the US, connives with local NGOs and lawyers to make it a case of violation of US labour laws and human trafficking. The whole thing has been done with enormous bad faith by US authorities. The intention was clearly to make an example of our diplomat and grand stand on the issue of human trafficking. In their internal deliberations the US side must have discussed the likely Indian reaction. Clearly, they either underestimated it or thought they could manage it, secure in their own sense of virtue, moral superiority and legality. This is the product of an innately arrogant mindset. Worse, they evacuate the family of the maid, as if India is a dangerous legal black hole where Indian citizens will not get justice and need the protection of superior US laws. This is rank interference in our judicial processes and this kind of contempt for our them should be taken note of suo moto by our judiciary and legal proceedings begun against the egregious Mr Bharara and those in the Embassy responsible for this act. There has been a design behind the actions of the US authorities.
Do you think India’s handling of the episode in the sense of its strong reaction to the diplomat’s humiliation has been appropriate?
Entirely. The political class, the Ministry of External Affairs and public opinion in general are outraged by US high-handedness. The US has deeply antagonised the entire Indian Foreign Service and this will have a lasting impact on India-US ties. Our steps have been mild so far, in that unentitiled privileges available to US diplomats in Consulates in the country have been withdrawn. Information has been sought from the Embassy about salaries and bank accounts of their local staff in the missions and in the American School and the misuse of some duty free privileges is being stopped. The US Embassy will not give the information we want as it will expose the discriminatory and inferior salaries they give to their staff and the income tax evasion involved. The moral humbug of the Americans will be revealed. Much has made of the removal of security barriers on the rear of the Embassy. If the roads in the front and the side of the Embassy can have traffic, why not the rear? The issue is not security but the convenience of US Embassy personnel who had made a public road their private space and could walk unhindered by traffic from the Embassy to their recreational area.
Why do you think India didn’t take a similarly strong stand when the then Indian envoy to the US Meira Shankar was put through a pat down search and Hardeep Puri, the then envoy to the UN was asked to remove his turban at a US airport for a security check? Leaders like former president Abdul Kalam have been subjected to humiliating experiences too.
The first two cases are not as serious as arresting and strip-searching a lady Indian diplomat. When former President Kalam was security checked by US Airlines personnel on the sky bridge in India, we should unpardonable weakness in not arresting them and expelling them from the country.
As opposed to the Khobragade case, don’t you think that the Indian government adopted a very mild approach on the issue of US snooping on India by its NSA?
Yes, indeed. We parroted the US line that this was only for studying the pattern of calls and not their content. Brazil showed much more spunk. Even the Germans expressed their anger.
Was this matter brewing for some time given that the Khobragade incident is the third such incident in as many years wherein an Indian diplomat in the US has landed in trouble over the househelp they have got from India?
Yes. Because of the lessons learned from the previous two cases, this time the State Department and the New York police were kept informed of developments and their help was sought to repatriate the maid back to India. Where is the case of human trafficking when we were seeking the maid’s return and foiling her plans to settle in the US permanently? Our diplomat has landed into trouble because the US authorities have sided with the maid from the start and have wanted to make an example out of our diplomat.
Will the Khobragade incident and its fall-out have a lasting impact on Indo-US relations? Also, if India and the US have such cordial relations, why doesn’t the US grant India’s repeated requests to be given access to 26/11 accused David Headley?
I think the notion that the Americans are irredeemably arrogant and dangerously self-righteous has gained life again. That they lack respect for India is another message delivered. The US will not give us access to Headley as he was their agent and could make embarrassing disclosures.
