CURRENT AFFAIRS:
Case of the Maid from India:
Is the Indian Government's Fury Against the U.S. Justified?
Lately India is going through interesting times and strange events, and reactions even stranger continue to dot its varied landscape. For the past month, the country has been involved in a major fracas with the U.S., an issue that has strained bilateral relations and brought into fore many skeletons from the cupboards of the haloed Indian services and caused experts to sieve for interpretations on immunities granted to diplomats serving in different capacities, writes Priyanka Bhardwaj.
A majority of Indians living in the United States believe the United States was justified in arresting India’s New York Deputy Counsel General Devyani Khobragade, according to a survey conducted by Boston-based INE Media, Inc. In addition, a vast majority of Indians also agreed that Khobragade took advantage of her domestic worker and paid her a mere fraction of legal minimum wage.
(Above): Indian Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
The crisis escalated when on December 11, 2013, Devyani Khobragade, an Indian Deputy Consul General posted in New York was arrested and granted bail on a bond of $250,000 after pleading not guilty and surrendering her passport.
She faced charges of willfully committing visa fraud, under penalty of perjury under Title 28, US Code, Section 1746, and furnishing an employment contract to the U.S. State Department in support of a visa application filed by her for another individual (her Indian domestic maid, Sangeeta Richards) which she knew contained false material and fraudulent statements, besides maltreatment of this maid.
Alongside the above acts, Khobragade, a 1999 batch recruit of the esteemed Indian Foreign Services, entered into a verbal agreement with Richards for a payment of Rs. 30,000 per month (total equivalent to $573.07 or about $3.31 an hour) for 40 hours a week of work much below the minimum rate of $9.75 for an hour’s work (which amounts to $4,500 per month) as stipulated by the U.S. laws.
While she instructed Richards not to divulge anything to the embassy interviewer about the verbal agreement, shortly before flying to the U.S., she also got Richards to sign a secret contract for a salary payment of Rs. 30,000 per month to Richards that clearly omitted any mention of sick days or vacation time.
As documents available in the public domain suggest the charges considered as felonies in eyes of U.S. laws formed the basis of a warrant for her arrest that was issued by Hon. Debra Freeman, U.S. Magistrate Judge for the southern district of New York.
As soon as the news of her arrest reached India, the Government of India coming under pressure from various quarters took to vehemently condemning U.S. action, questioning arrest and procedures followed by U.S. Marshalls.
Coming out in defense of Khobragade, the Government of India went into a retaliatory mode and ordered for removal of security barricades around the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, withdrawal of airport passes and import privileges of U.S. diplomats, called back the identity cards issued to U.S. diplomats, and the Speaker of Lok Sabha and National Security Adviser refused to engage with the visiting U.S. Congressional delegation.
A senior politician and former Finance Minister even suggested that same sex partners of U.S. diplomats be arrested.
The row stems from the view of Government of India that the officer be viewed as the “only victim” in the saga and in line with this it has sought the U.S. to withdraw all cases and grant diplomatic immunity as per the Vienna Convention to Khobragade.
As matters stand, if Khobragade is proven guilty she may be sentenced to 15 years in jail so the issue of conversion of her consular immunity into a diplomatic one is being followed with seriousness and for which she was immediately transferred to the U.N. mission in New York by Government of India.
Initially, the U.S. government responded with an expression of regret but on repeated Indian inflammation, its prosecutors, led by Preet Bharara (Manhattan-based U.S. attorney who has an unquestionable reputation for his prosecution of the high and mighty for insider trading and financial fraud at the Wall Street) came out to state that during Khobragde’s arrest “standard procedures” were followed.
Though the U.S. government has said that Khobragade enjoyed only consular immunity which limits it to her consular duties and not for crimes committed on U.S. soil and also clarified that diplomatic immunity could not be retroactive, it is scrutinizing Khobragade’s UN accreditation issue after Indian government’s repeated assertion.
(Above): Delhi Police remove the security barricades outside the U.S. embassy. [Reuters]
Reading Between the Lines
It goes without saying that the upper echelons of bureaucracy in India have been a cozy set that is infamous for safeguarding its privileges and benefits as no other class and for quite a handful, compliance of laws is a mere technicality which can be brushed under the carpet or refashioned to serve their ends.
Some of them, unwilling to be named, also confess that contracts for employment of domestics, similar to the one Khobragade concluded with Richards, have always been in implementation and serve as a ‘technical requirement’ and blame the likes (domestics) of Richards to ‘develop an urge to emigrate’ despite being paid handsomely as per Indian standards.
The fact that the U.S. law enforcers took to arrest of Khobragade on the original violation of law committed by her and that perjury is a grave crime, remains incomprehensible as in India such offences occurring on a daily basis and in all aspects of existence is regarded as passé.
Another point that flared Indian’s elitist sentiments was “evacuation” of maid’s husband and son on December 10, to which Bharara contends was crucial for protection of witnesses as once the maid went “missing” in the U.S. and reappeared for settlement negotiations, Khobragade initiated retributive measures against Richards’s family in Indian courts.
The Richards-Devyani chapter is among the numerous instances when Indian diplomats had flouted U.S. stipulations.
In 2012, an Indian official (Neena Malhotra) manning the MEA desk was asked by the U.S. to pay a $1 million-plus restitution to an India-based domestic assistant for alleged underpayment and mistreatment of her maid but the Government of India took an immediate action and transferred Malhotra back to New Delhi while the case was still under way.
Ironically, the Government of India’s tenacity in upholding Khobragade’s rights has not irked its own conscience to attend to the plight of hundreds of thousands of domestics on its own soil who survive in dire living conditions, get paid hand-to-mouth wages, suffer inhuman treatment at the hands of exploiters and no legislative body or trade union exists to protect them or fix accountability.
Indirectly related to the Khobragade case is also the fact that Khobragade too has her hands full of many illegal acts thanks to her father, Uttam Khobragade, an influential retired bureaucrat.
While her property assets in terms of flats and agricultural land in Aurangabad, Pune, Delhi, Thane, and investments of large amounts, make her worth up to several crores, her name has figured among the ones involved in the flat allotment scam looked into by the Adarsh Commission.
A recent story in a national daily stated that the Supreme Court judgment that has ordered for immediate reinstatement of IFS officer, Mahaveer V. Singhvi, who was dismissed when he tried to complain against “changes’’ of rules for allotment of foreign language to IFS officers, which was always done on basis of their ranks in the select list, for Khobragade’s batch in 1999 in order to ensure her selection for her chosen language.
A significant bearing in Khobragade case is also that her husband, Aakash Singh Rathore, is an American citizen, working as a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, may have possible business interests in his family-owned winery in Michigan.
(Above): Left Party activists hold placard and shout slogans during a protest against the alleged mistreatment of New York-based Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, near the U.S Consulate in Hyderabad, India, Dec. 19, 2013. [Mahesh Kumar A. | AP]
Voices from the Indian corridors of power suggest that the U.S. and Indian authorities are keen to preserve the invaluable ties between the two nations and there has been evident softening of stand on both sides but a healthy position for India would be to adopt a mature behavior and strive to make itself a land of equals rather than bracketing itself with a colonial master against which it had fought its long War of Independence.
The Government of India cannot merely look into resolution of this case in a standalone manner but also take up this difference of wages issue and revisit its laws pertaining to pursuance of justice in cases of immunity granted to certain officials that may be acts of assurances for delivery of justice in future.
For sure the Indian society that does not lose a second to aspire for rights, opportunities, equality and living conditions at par with the West needs to understand that officers like Khobragade do more harm to India’s image abroad by committing illegal acts that they might be getting away with, back home.
Nikhil Natraj, a practicing doctor in the U.S. briefly points out, “If you cannot afford something you do not do it illegally. Thousands of Indians and Asians are working hard and sacrificing their careers to manage household chores on their own, either because they cannot afford to get it done from housekeepers or are unwilling to spend huge sums on hiring one. If a hardworking commoner can abide by the law why should a diplomat find it difficult to resort to illegal means to do its dirty work at home?”
— Priyanka Bhardwaj
Majority of Indian Americans Side with U.S. in Arrest of Indian Diplomat, Survey Shows
A majority of Indians living in the United States believe the United States was justified in arresting India’s New York Deputy Counsel General Devyani Khobragade, according to a survey conducted this week by Boston-based INE Media, Inc. In addition, a vast majority of Indians also agreed that Khobragade took advantage of her domestic worker and paid her a mere fraction of legal minimum wage.
 Nearly half of the Indians, however, agreed that the U.S. officials mistreated Khobragade after her arrest, according to the national survey, which was conducted December 18-19, 2013.
“We were getting very passionate and divided opinions on this issue and wanted to know the truth and find out what was really in the minds of the majority of Indians living in the United States,” said Upendra Mishra, president of INE Media Inc. “One of the surprises from the survey was that about 57 percent of the people surveyed said that Ms. Khobragade should not be protected from prosecution due to her diplomatic status.”
Khobragade, 39, was arrested Dec. 12 for allegedly providing false statements in order to gain entry into the U.S. for an Indian national she intended to employ as a housekeeper. The Indian diplomat reportedly falsified documents to cover up the $3.31 she paid the housekeeper, a figure that is well below New York’s minimum wage of $7.25.
Arrested after dropping her daughter off at school, Khobragade was strip-searched and jailed for six hours before posting bond. In the aftermath of the arrest, India has called Khobragade’s arrest “barbaric” and has said she deserves diplomatic immunity. The U.S., on the other hand, has stated it was simply following standard procedures during the diplomat’s arrest and detainment.
Here are the results of the survey:
1. Do you believe the U.S. was justified in arresting Devyani Khobragade?
Yes: 51 percent
No: 30.4 percent
Maybe: 12.4 percent
Don’t know: 6.2 percent
2. The U.S. has stated Khobragade’s treatment was routine and followed standard procedures. Do you believe U.S. officials mistreated her after her arrest?
Yes:45.4 percent
No: 33 percent
Maybe: 11.3 percent
Don’t know: 10.3 percent
3. Khobragade’s attorney has said the diplomat should be protected from prosecution due to her diplomatic status. Do you agree with this?
Yes: 29.8 percent
No: 56.5 percent
Maybe: 7.3 percent
Don’t know: 6.3 percent
4. Do you support India’s strong reactions following Khobragade’s arrest?
Yes: 43.0 percent
No: 37.8 percent
Maybe: 12.4 percent
Don’t know: 6.7 percent
5. Will this affect diplomatic relations between the U.S. and India moving forward?
Yes: 17.5 percent.
No: 44.8 percent
Maybe: 23.7 percent
Don’t know: 13.9 percent
6. Do you think Khobragade took advantage of her domestic worker and paid her a mere fraction of legal minimum wage?
Yes: 59.5 percent
No: 11.3 percent
Maybe: 14.4 percent
Don’t know: 14.9 percent
7. Is this dispute a diplomatic issue or a human rights issue because Khobragade paid her worker only $3.31 pet hour, instead of the $9.75 the documents outlined?
Human rights issue: 40.8 percent
Diplomatic issue: 13.1 percent
Both: 35.1 percent
Don’t know: 11.0 percent
8. Do you think a diplomat should be treated differently than any American citizen who mistreats a worker, either foreign or domestic?
Yes: 22.1 percent
No: 68.2 percent
Maybe: 7.2 percent
Don’t know: 2.6 percent.
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Priyanka Bhardwaj is a reporter with Siliconeer. She is based in New Delhi.
