Oh America, what are you thinking when you do such things?
That was my first reaction when I heard about the arrest and strip-search of an Indian diplomat in New York on charges of falsifying information on her nanny’s visa application.
The case of Devyani Khobragade, the Indian deputy consul-general in New York, has prompted anti-American outrage in Indian public and political circles to a degree not seen since the end of the Cold War.
The episode began when Ms Khobragade hired an Indian national, Sangeeta Richard, to care for her two children. She reportedly drafted two contracts: one to show to US authorities that she was paying the minimum wage under US laws, and the other showing the real, lower wage the nanny would receive.
Certainly Ms Khobragade was at fault if this was the case, but also keep in mind that Indian diplomats are not paid like their American counterparts. Hiring a maid or nanny on American wages is beyond the means of most Indian diplomats. As well, most of these household helpers are live-in and therefore there are other costs beyond wages.
I am not trying to defend a low-paying diplomat here, but one has to take into account the unusual “norms” of the diplomatic community worldwide. Even Americans, while preaching the “rule of law” far and wide, breach loads of domestic laws in the countries where they’re posted.
If the United States wants to breach the Vienna Convention, I for one would be happy to see a reform or amendment to the clauses that have been in place since 1961 that offer wide immunity to diplomats.
Take for example the case of the former Romanian charge d’affaires to Singapore, Silviu Ionescu, who ran a red light and rammed into three pedestrians, killing one. He never returned to Singapore after he fled the country but was later prosecuted and got a jail term of just three years for homicide.
Look around you in Bangkok and you see diplomats breaching rules on a daily basis, from driving through no-entry zones or red lights, not paying for parking tickets, or more serious infractions such as allegedly backing suspected extremists or helping circulate counterfeit currency.
If every host country started to apply its rules to diplomats, it would be the best thing to happen to the world. Alas, most of these people are protected by the Vienna Convention and very few countries dare challenge it, except perhaps the policeman of the world, the United States.
There are reports that the US knew about the case of Ms Khobragade as the Indian government had already cancelled the passport of Ms Richard months ago after she absconded from her work in June.
But the arrest, coupled with the strip-search of a diplomat of a friendly country, was so unexpected. I doubt that a phone call by US Secretary of State John Kerry to Indian National Security adviser Shivshankar Menon to “regret” the incident will soften the mood in India.
Ms Khobragade’s case comes at a time when her country is preparing for a national election, and since she is a member of the Dalit (untouchable) community, it is even more sensitive.
In any case, handcuffing a female diplomat then subjecting her to a strip-search, DNA swabbing and cavity searches, as Ms Khobragade claimed in her e-mail to her colleagues at the Ministry of External Affairs, is unheard of.
This comes from a country that had actually helped the Bin Laden family to take safe passage out of the United States just days after Sept 11, 2001. Once they were safe, then the US targeted the family member responsible for nearly a decade before managing to kill him.
To top it off, there are many cases pending in New York itself of other diplomats who have breached domestic laws or been involved in graft, but none have been arrested or had to undergo such degrading procedures.
India has done the appropriate thing by retaliating against US Embassy officials who had enjoyed vast privileges in India, and more action should follow in the near future.
The bigger question is what prompted the United States to take this step with a country that has had a history of being anti-American and only in the past decade or so has had a shift in its mood.
India despised the United States during the era of the Soviet Union, but now with the rise of China, the Americans want to have a greater say in this part of the world. Washington has been firming up alliances with Japan, South Korea and even Thailand, and it certainly doesn’t need to alienate a big “friend” to the west of our country.