NEW DELHI: Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested, strip-searched and put in a cell with criminals in the US, has been transferred to the permanent mission to United Nations in New York, which entitles her to full diplomatic immunity. This comes just after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called her treatment by the US “deplorable” and the government vowed to do all it could to bring her back.
According to TV reports, Khobragade’s absconding maid Sangeeta Richard’s family flew to New York on Dec. 10, just two days before the diplomat was arrested. India has alleged that the US helped the maid’s family escape despite warrant against them in India after they went missing in US. The report also says, US facilitated fraud in helping maid’s family migrating to the US.
The US government had justified the arrest saying her non-official functions were not covered by diplomatic immunity.
“Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Indian deputy consul general enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts only with respect to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions,” US state department spokesperson Marie Harf said on Monday.
She was reportedly handcuffed, subjected to body searches and kept along with drug addicts in custody before being released on a $250,000 bail. Her treatment evoked a sharp response from the Indian government.
Earlier on Wednesday, calling her arrest a “conspiracy” in which she was “virtually trapped,” ExternalAffairs Minister Salman Khurshid vowed he will not return to Parliament until her dignity is restored.
Justifying the government decision to scrap privileges enjoyed by US diplomats in India, Khurshid said it was a matter of India’s honor and the country’s prestige was involved in it.
“We strongly condemn the incident...We will do the needful to protect India’s interests,” he said.
“It is no longer an issue of an individual, but the sovereignty of a nation is involved,” the minister added, while assuring c the country will not be let down.
Terming the US action as totally and entirely unacceptable, Khurshid said, “Today, our paramount concern is to ensure that the dignity of our officer is preserved. The tragedy is that this is not an incident in which two countries are involved. This is an incident in which individuals are involved.” “It is not illegality that she is accused of, but the illegality she refused to oblige,” he said.
He said the measures against US diplomats in India were not an over-reaction because the treatment meted out to Devyani Khobragade had “not happened out of blue” and there is a “history” behind it.
The US Marshals Service confirmed that Khobragade, 39, had been strip-searched like other prisoners after being detained while dropping her two children off at school.
US authorities say she not only paid a domestic servant a fraction of the minimum wage but also lied in a visa application for the employee, an Indian national who has since absconded.
In an e-mail to colleagues published Wednesday, Khobragade said she told arresting authorities that she had diplomatic immunity — only to suffer repeated searches and to be jailed with “common criminals.” “I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a hold-up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity,” she said in the e-mail.
“I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified, thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride.” The revelation that a high-ranking diplomat could be subjected to such treatment has caused huge offense in a country that sees itself as an emerging world power.
India was locked in a furious row with Italy earlier this year when the Rome government initially reneged on a promise to fly two marines back to New Delhi to face trial over a fatal shooting.
The marines did eventually return after India ordered immigration authorities to stop Italy’s ambassador from leaving the country.
With a general election just months away, the ruling Congress and the nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are both keen to be seen as standing up to the United States over the issue.
Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP foreign minister, said Tuesday that India should now arrest American gays who were in India after a ruling last week that upheld a colonial-era ban on homosexuality.
“India takes on Uncle Sam,” read the front-page headline of The Hindustan Times, while the Mail Today splashed with “Bulldozer Diplomacy” on top of a picture of a digger dragging away concrete barricades outside the US embassy on Tuesday.
US consular officials have also been told to return identity cards that speed up travel into and through India. Import clearances for them, including for alcohol, have been suspended.
