India-US Strategic News and Discussion

[Arjun]

Doesn't the IFS warn its diplomats about potential dangers to watch out for in every country of posting? I would have thought this kind of stuff that Dayal indulged in would be Item #1 in the 'Do Not Do' list of any self-respecting foreign service.

Unless there is no basis whatsoever to the maid's claims - not only Dayal but also senior heads in the IFS should roll.

[vera_k]

Have to wait and watch. There are immigration benefits available to victims of human trafficking, so that's one reason why someone would file suit alleging precisely that.

[Arjun]

Point is shouldn't there be internal rules in IFS about allowing maids brought in from India - and even if that were to be allowed, what their pay should be? That would be very obvious to anyone who has any knowledge of the US legal system.

[abhishek_sharma]

Charting the Future of U.S.-India Relations: An Interview with Ambassador Thomas Pickering

[vera_k]

Point is shouldn't there be internal rules in IFS about allowing maids brought in from India - and even if that were to be allowed, what their pay should be?

That would not solve anything, since the fundamental need for such employees to show the occurence of trafficking would not change. IMO, IFS should hire maids locally to avoid such issues. Even USC's of Indian origin are available to work as maids if they only cared to look, and not be cheap.

[UBanerjee]

Even USC's of Indian origin are available to work as maids if they only cared to look, and not be cheap.

It in fact sounds like they wanted to replicate the sort of domestic help available dirt cheap in India, in the US (a desire which really isn't that incomprehensible in and of itself, but is obviously not a good idea for someone in that position even if technically above board). As for the allegations themselves, they remain to be actually proven. So far, just noise.

[UBanerjee]

Charting the Future of U.S.-India Relations: An Interview with Ambassador Thomas Pickering

This is a very illuminating interview, some choice bits:

My feeling is that the [MMRCA] decision was a sad mistake, and to some extent a serious one, but one that the United States and the companies involved quite wisely have tried to treat as part of the process of doing business. In business, one must come to know that you don’t win them all; you stay in business because, in the long term, you think you make better products. Only bad businessmen create animosity among their customers.

I was deeply concerned in 2004 that somehow the Indian prime minister would be sent the message that a sine qua non of U.S.-India relations in the future would be that India would become an ally against China, so I asked the prime minister the only question that actually got into the proceedings with the South Asia Caucus in July 2004. The question I asked him concerned India’s relationship with China, and he explained it very well.

He said that India, of course, has had a very troubled relationship with China but seeks to find answers to those problems through diplomacy. This does not mean that India is somehow neglecting its concerns with respect to China, but that India’s China policy is defined in terms of Indian interests and will be pursued through diplomatic efforts to try to resolve any problems. This answer was perfect, because it put the relationship in exactly the right context for those people who were waiting for New Delhi to let the United States hold its coat while India went to war with China, of which there were not a few in some parts of the Republican Party at the time.

Now with Afghanistan, the trappings of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship are causing some degree of heartburn in India.

We tend to need Pakistan more than Pakistan needs us. That’s the current dilemma, because in many ways the United States is utterly dependent on Pakistan for logistical access to Afghanistan. In some respects this situation is paradoxical, because in my own view the United States is in Afghanistan more to avoid destabilizing Pakistan than for almost any other reason. It is utterly strange that at the same time that we are in Afghanistan trying to help Pakistan, the Pakistanis see our struggle against the Afghan Taliban as a struggle against erstwhile allies.

Seems to be having precisely the opposite effect, hence George Friedman pushing for US to get out to keep Pakistan a viable counterweight to India!

[RSoami]

She has lodged the case one and half years after she ran away..Seems like a nonsense case onlee

[sivab]

That was kind of funny to read...like in..its so bizarre....if not sad kind of way. I am telling you... these buggers...there are too many like this in high office in India.

Sheesh!

Very objective Manny. Why bother with formalities like his side of the story or whether he is innocent. Just hang him high or shoot him.

[Shankk]

I would think the Govt has some power over foreign policy than someones toilet habits. But considering some Indians waiting for their fav socialist govt to come and solve all the problems for them, I wouldn't be too surprised if many are still waiting for the govt to help improve their toilet habits.

It is not a habit but rather a lack of proper toilets that force me to go out and defecate in open; you certainly know that, why play innocent? Is it entirely my fault that I am this p!ss poor to unable to afford basic necessities despite working 10+ hours a day? Last 50 years out of 60 years of independence I am seeing Congress leaders led by Gandhi family giving us lectures of poverty reduction but my father had to go out every morning like his father and now my turn. Will my next generation follow the same path that this Congress government has failed to help me change? If this is not something government is supposed to help citizens with then should I be liable to pay sales tax that government tells me is to improve my life. All that is visible is that it just improves Congress leaders lifestyle specially lifestyle of Gandhi family and their coterie. What is the point in having democratic government when Congress decides 50 out of 60 years what is good for us and there is no change in our life style that the basic necessities are still not met. To add insult to injury whenever I complain, Congress tells Muslims and Christians that a Hindu fundamentalist is asking for dominance over them or different variations of this theme.

You mentioned about foreign policy and alluded to its importance. Are you advising me that I tell my children to sleep hungry because their father can't earn enough despite working 10+ hours while the "democratic" government is busy doing something called foreign policy and cannot help us meet the basic necessities? Please understand that I am not an affluent person like you privileged ones. I have very simple and basic necessities that I am expecting the government to help me meet the same way this government expects me to pay taxes for this very same purpose and then fail to do their job. If this is the definition of democracy for Congress government then I do NOT want democracy neither democratically elected Congress government. Also do not want to follow rules and laws formulated by this democratic Congress government that only helps Congress party and Gandhi family. Ohh and what exactly foreign policy means? Indian policy formulated and run by foreigners? Thanks but no thanks.

[Manny]

Shankk.

I don't know why you and I are arguing. I am with you on 90% what you said! <scratching head here>

[Manny]

sivab.

Yaar, I am neither a Jury nor am I adjudicating a case here... I am going by that news and that news only like that were true. Yup and made my comment! Its not like my opinion is worth a 25cents to buy a cup of coffee!

[BijuShet]

From Reuters report on the Consul General. More details included on the length of her service with the family in other postings and in US and the time she spent away from the family after escaping them and then filing this case. I know many well to do NRI often bring their maid with them in South east Asia and the Middle east. The consul general should know that those countries may allow such practises or may look the other way but the US is the last place you want to do something like this and not expect to get into trouble. $300 i.e. (INR 13.5K) is a decent pay in India but is definitely below minimum wage in the US. He may soon be recalled back to India. This may be NYPD getting back at the Indian Consulate for the other lawsuit brought on by Ms Basu. Otherwise 18 months is a long time to wait before bringing on this lawsuit. Looks like Indian and US diplomats need share more chai biskoot to understand each other better.

NY maid claims Indian consul exploited her: lawsuit

By Basil Katz
NEW YORK | Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:55pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - India's consul general in New York and his family treated a former maid like a slave, paying her $300 a month, confiscating her passport and sexually harassing her, a lawsuit against the family said.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit filed on Monday is the latest in a string of allegations of abuse by diplomats in the United States.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Santosh Bhardwaj, the former maid, by the Legal Aid Society, a group that provides legal help to the poor.

The lawsuit said she was virtually enslaved by Consul Prabhu Dayal and his wife and daughter. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

"Defendants confiscated Ms. Bhardwaj's passport and subjected her to approximately a year of forced labor and psychological coercion in their household, culminating in an incident of sexual harassment," the lawsuit said.

In a statement, Dayal's attorney called the maid a "fraudster."

"This fraudster of a woman, seeing dollar signs, has hit on a 'get rich quick' scheme after a year and a half of illegally staying and working in New York," attorney Ravi Batra said.

The maid escaped from the consular residence, located on New York's posh Upper East Side, in January 2010 after just under a year in the United States, the lawsuit said.

Dayal, a former ambassador to Mexico and Kuwait, took up the New York post in 2008. Bhardwaj had worked for the family on other postings abroad. A consul general is a high-ranking official who facilitates trade and travel among other things.

The case is Santosh Bhardwaj v Prabhu Dayal, Chandini Dayal and Akansha Dayal, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 11-004170.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

[Amber G.]

IMO, much more serious that NYPD vs India (Diplomat(s)) or US /Indian diplomatic relations - are duties of Indian consulates to protect the rights and help the Indian citizens in US.

So supporting Diplomat's daughter and providing all the help to her (and taking her case up) is right thing to do.

But Consulate should also provide all the help to its employees (even maids) and even non-employees as long as they have an Indian passport and ask for help. The Indian consulate should provide all the legal help to the maid, and check out if there is any merit in the maid's complaint. Looks like maid had to go to NY's legal aid -- (Why did the consulate did not at least look into it, had internal investigation etc)

What I have seen, at least in my personal experience or more than few decades in US, when it comes to helping fellow Indian citizens, the Indian Consulate's record is nothing short of shameful. Heck, one can't even reach a right person on the phone in case some one needs help.

For non-Indian Citizens, even simple services like getting a Visa is so bad, that one has to see it to believe it. Terrorists like Rana and Headly can get a Visa with no problem, but simple folks, get run-around. The worthies don't even answer their phone.

[Stan_Savljevic]

For non-Indian Citizens, even simple services like getting a Visa is so bad, that one has to see it to believe it. Terrorists like Rana and Headly can get a Visa with no problem, but simple folks, get run-around. The worthies don't even answer their phone.

Yes, replace non-Indian with non-amrikan, Rana and headley with atta and al hazmi, simple folks with Injuns. Its all == onlee. Btw, have you been to any of the US embassies in India? They wont even let you in nor update you on any of the processing and you have to wait at their mercy. At least the Injun embassy in massa will let you in and say what to do to access the proper channel.

[Manny]

Its to do with the sheer volume of people. I have never ever had to visit the US embassy in India. But I have seen the Q.

Initially I came as a tourist and then as a student .and I got all my Visa papers at the embassy in Istanbul, Turkey (I lived there then). There were not many people waiting in line. I could simply call the American Embassy speak to a person there and then go there and meet the same person. Yup, at the gate, I said, I need to meet so and so and they let me in.

But then, the Indian Embassy too opened the embassy for me on a Sunday and gave me those extra long visa papers to my already filled up Passport. Thats right.. First class service at Ankara. Cause there were only 4 or 5 Indian families living in Turkey (they must have been bored out of their wits). This was 1990. (I of course gave my home addy and telephone to the attache with an invidation he can come and stay with me in my house in Istanbul whenever he and his family visits Istanbul. He was kind enough to drive to the embassy and meet me at the door. Not a bribe or anying..this was after the fact that the Attache told me that he would open the embassy on a Sunday for me)

Nigeria, Lagos Indian embassy ain't too bad either. an armed robber stole all the money and passports the office peon was holding after he got a bunch our Italian visa. I had to travel the next day and the Indian Embassy there too quickly gave me a 3 month temp passport the same day.

I was not someone important either...I was just 24 years old. Except, I worked for a good well known firm in Nigeria which the embassy knew about.



Sorry for the OT!

[abhishek_sharma]

Donald Rumsfeld interview (Video)

[abhishek_sharma]

A major shift in global economic power is approaching. Can the U.S. cope?

[abhishek_sharma]

CHANGING THE GUARD AT THE U.S. EMBASSY IN DELHI: Teresita and Howard Schaffer

[Amber G.]

Manny thanks for the interesting story..There are good people everywhere.

I once lost my passport (actually my laptop with passport and other papers were stolen from the car) while returning back to home. I discovered this while returning the rental car at the airport. It was about 4AM Sunday morning just hours before my flight, I called the US consulate from the airport, expecting to get a recording, but did get a person.. and to make the long story short, I was able to catch the flight as someone made a trip to the airport and delivered my "official papers" (a hand written note)... and no I was just an ordinary citizen.. did not know anyone etc.

US consulate is generally quite helpful to its citizens..

[Amber G.]

For non-Indian Citizens, even simple services like getting a Visa is so bad, that one has to see it to believe it. Terrorists like Rana and Headly can get a Visa with no problem, but simple folks, get run-around. The worthies don't even answer their phone.

Yes, replace non-Indian with non-amrikan, Rana and headley with atta and al hazmi, simple folks with Injuns. Its all == onlee. Btw, have you been to any of the US embassies in India? <snip> .

Wonder if you noticed that I was talking about Indian consulates ...

Even assuming that US embassies, are worse than "Injuns" (which BTW may not be even true.. but leave that aside) what is the point of this "torn shirt , open fly" = = ... ? Indian consulates are above criticism? For not helping their own citizens? Not even picking up telephone? Giving run-around to ordinary people who wants to visit India ?

Isn't above == is kind of silly like the explanation given by Paki minister's on CNN .. referring to Atta and all (how come US did not know about them ityadi..) in response to how come no one knew about OBL in Pak?

[vera_k]

If foreigners are getting the run-around, it is not because of differential treatment. This is how Government of India agencies behave with Indian citizens all the time. At least the foreigners are not being asked to bribe the visa officers unlike what they'll find once they land up in the country.

[svinayak]

http://pewglobal.org/files/2011/06/Pew- ... 1-2011.pdf
Indians are mostly unaware that lot of Let and Kashmir terrorists are indirectly supported by US policies

Indians are more divided on this issue. Nearly three-in-ten
(27%) say that U.S. policies in the region are balanced, while a
similar proportion (29%) believes that the U.S. favors India.
Only 13% say that Pakistan garners greater favor.
Many in both countries think the India-U.S. relationship has
grown stronger in recent years. A plurality of Indians (46%)
says relations between their country and the U.S. have
improved. An equal number (46%) of Pakistanis agree that
India-U.S. relations have improved, up from 37% last year.

These guys also want to measure how two thrid party country view each other.
Americans are most interested how Indians view Pakistani or how Pak people view Indians.

What is the reason for the curiosity. Is it beacuse they are responsible for the social eningeering inside Pakistan during the Zia period and change in the text books to view India as the enemy

[Stan_Savljevic]

Indian consulates are above criticism?

No, "Injun" consulates are not beyond criticism.

But then for every bullshit story of negativity you can throw, there can be (and often is) another positive story that someone else might have seen (e.g., me). At the end of the day, criticism has to be objective and not subjective based on what you see/"feel" based on personal experiences. There are >2.8 Injuns in massa (and growing) and 5 consulates. Add another 1 million that seeks visa for anything from bijnez to collaboration to exploration to hippie-dom to soul harvesting. Even if only 10% of Injuns seek consular services of any form in massa in a year, that is ~1.2 million services that need to be performed over ~330 man-days with a ~10 person civilian consular strength over 5 consulates. That is an average of 72 services over a 8 hour work day or a little over 10 minutes for anything from a cursory security check to storing the info in a database to a deep full-body passport scan for hon. pakis and uber-pakis. And the above assumes that the civilian consular strength dont double up on non-civilian consular duty, which they almost always do to different degrees. So there you go, throw muck at people who do their job without all the attendant limelite that any toilet paper of India will bequeath.

is kind of silly like the explanation given by Paki minister's on CNN .. referring to Atta and all (how come US did not know about them ityadi..) in response to how come no one knew about OBL in Pak?

You just dont get the fact that with a constrained centralized architecture as the Indian consulates in massa have, it is hard to know what one hand does and the other hand dishes out. The same problem is there even in a uber-centralized architecture as with US consulates anywhere in the world. What gets dished out in West Asia does not get passed on time to the Indian subcontinent and what gets done here does not get passed on to the Asia-Pacific. In fact, it gets even worse when you go to FBI/CIA/NSA level. Information gets collected, but not analyzed or passed along accurately so much for amrika is supapowuh argument. You cant throw muck at Injun consulates for what is basically a complicated data mining/analysis problem. So yes, it aint silly. And you dont have to be a paki minister to come up with this excuse. I am sure you know enough about the Netflix problem and problems of similar nature and how much crowdsourcing was needed to tackle it, so it only looks sillier to throw muck around without understanding the real issue and floating libel.

[ramana]

I have had positive experiences with DC Embassy and SF consulate. Prompt and no hassles for visa and passport issues.

However desi crowd and the myriad problems they have with passports is astonishing. If any thing can go worng with a passport a desi will have that issue.

[sum]

Nirupama Rao to be next Indian ambassador to US

NEW DELHI: Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao is set to be the next Indian ambassador to the United States, official sources said here on Wednesday.

Rao, 60, will be demitting office July 31 at the end of her two-year term.

The government has decided to appoint Rao as the next envoy in Washington, the sources said.

Rao will replace Meera Shankar, who has held the post since 2009.

During Rao's term, the cabinet had amended its rules to ensure that any foreign secretary should serve for a period of two years. She had been given a seven-month extension in December.

Isn't becoming a amby after being FS a ( sort of) demotion?

[shyamd]

Random article about a undercober CIA operative who was working in Dilli:

Saudi Arabia: Honey, We’ve Got to Talk
Posted on June 22, 2011 by American Bedu

1 Vote

Quantcast

I truly believed I’d likely end my CIA career as an undercover operative, especially since I was choosing love over career and love to a foreign dignitary at that! I took my vows of cover seriously. Even while Abdullah and I began to plan a life together I never indicated that I had been anything else but a ‘regular diplomat.’ He was already working in the United States at the Saudi Embassy in Washington when I joined him from New Delhi, India as his wife. During those first weeks of marriage he understood that I was still “out-processing” from my job and finishing up administrative paperwork. One of those “administrative” issues included a briefing and instructions from the ‘Central Cover Staff’ which were responsible for helping to build and protect the cover of employees. I went to the meeting expecting to sign a continued declaration of secrecy and oath of cover. Wrong! Instead I was informed that since I was leaving the CIA I was “being brought out from under cover.” For various legalities, I would no longer be an undercover operative and instead my record indicated my true employer. I was shocked. I had become so accustomed to living under a cover that blanketed me. I made sure that the department was aware I had married a foreign official and that he had no indication or hint of who I had worked for. I was politely but firmly told that was my issue to deal with. Actually after going through the initial shock and feeling of nakedness without a cover, I began to realize there were more benefits and opportunities without a cover story to worry about. But I still had to get through the challenge and fear of telling my new husband that there were some (big) things he may not have known about me. My concern wasn’t as much about his reaction but I did not want any retribution to fall upon my husband because of choices I had made.

My cover was unraveled at the same time Abdullah and I were purchasing our home in Virginia. Central Cover Staff advised me that the mortgage application had to reflect my CIA employment since the record changes had gone into immediate effect. Plus, a mortgage required a lot of legal documentation that had to be correct and truthful. I had a window of about 14 hours to share my revelations with him.

As a newly married couple we were shy, loving and always warm around each other. I loved how he would enter our home, put his briefcase in the foyer, open his arms wide and holler “Honey, I’m home!” I’d always come running and fling myself in his arms. It didn’t matter we were not teenagers although our love for each other radiated like innocent children. One of the first things he asked the day he knew I had some “resignation meetings” was how did they go? Without any further ado I took his hand and led him to the couch. Sitting down and holding his hand I told him, “Honey, we’ve got to talk.”

Abdullah squeezed my hand in assurance and simply looked in to my eyes waiting for me to speak. His face held no expression. I began by apologizing that there were things I had not shared and had never thought I’d share. Things that would never affect my love, honor or desire for him. Then I just pretty much blurted it out and told him that I had never been a real diplomat. I had actually been an undercover operative, an intelligence officer, a spy for the past 20 years. He was amazing. He looked at me, kissed my forehead and simply said, “Carol Ann Fleming, I married YOU; not your career or former career. I am proud to learn how you served your country.”

Abdullah never wanted details about my career with the CIA. While we did not hide my true employment when necessary it was not something that was brought up as a topic of conversation either. We chose to maintain with our diverse friends and contacts from around the world that I also had served in the diplomatic corps. There were no reasons to state otherwise. Whether Abdullah had to report the identity of my true (former) employer I do not know. When it came to career issues, we always respected each other’s privacy.

Individuals and officials from both countries and third countries often times seemed to not know how to take Abdullah and I. We came from such very different backgrounds and cultures yet fit together like two peas in a pod. The girl who came from where oil was first discovered finally met her Prince whose Kingdom reigns over OPEC. We learned our roots, values and goals in life were the best foundation to build new roots and beginnings together.

[Stan_Savljevic]

Isn't becoming a amby after being FS a ( sort of) demotion?

Ambassadors are usually Grade II on the IFS scale, ForSec is Grade I.

But there have been (many) precedents. Kanwal Sibal was ForSec in 2002-03, became Ambassador for Russia 2004-07. SK Singh was For Sec 89-90, became governor of Arunachal and later of Rajasthan, Lalit Mansingh was ForSec 2000-01, became Ambassador of US in 2001, etc. I think the pay grade level may be lower, but this looks like more of a policy decision to keep So Block and PMO in sync with the Indian embassy in massa given the fork point in our relationship. The standard route is ForSec --> NSA as happened with JND and Shiv Shankar Menon or ForSec --> Ambassador of some high profile nation (aka US, Russia, China) or ForSec --> Nuke deal frontsman as with Shyam Saran, but SSM is still in the NSA spot now and Shyam Saran holds forte at the nuke arena.

Contenders for ForSec seem to be Hardeep Puri and Ranjan Mathi.

[VinodTK]

India averse to inking military pacts with U.S.

[abhishek_sharma]

Government unhappy with US response to troubles of Indian diplomats

[Mort Walker]

Indian consulates are above criticism?

No, "Injun" consulates are not beyond criticism.

But then for every bullshit story of negativity you can throw, there can be (and often is) another positive story that someone else might have seen (e.g., me). At the end of the day, criticism has to be objective and not subjective based on what you see/"feel" based on personal experiences. There are >2.8 Injuns in massa (and growing) and 5 consulates. Add another 1 million that seeks visa for anything from bijnez to collaboration to exploration to hippie-dom to soul harvesting. Even if only 10% of Injuns seek consular services of any form in massa in a year, that is ~1.2 million services that need to be performed over ~330 man-days with a ~10 person civilian consular strength over 5 consulates. That is an average of 72 services over a 8 hour work day or a little over 10 minutes for anything from a cursory security check to storing the info in a database to a deep full-body passport scan for hon. pakis and uber-pakis. And the above assumes that the civilian consular strength dont double up on non-civilian consular duty, which they almost always do to different degrees. So there you go, throw muck at people who do their job without all the attendant limelite that any toilet paper of India will bequeath.

is kind of silly like the explanation given by Paki minister's on CNN .. referring to Atta and all (how come US did not know about them ityadi..) in response to how come no one knew about OBL in Pak?

You just dont get the fact that with a constrained centralized architecture as the Indian consulates in massa have, it is hard to know what one hand does and the other hand dishes out. The same problem is there even in a uber-centralized architecture as with US consulates anywhere in the world. What gets dished out in West Asia does not get passed on time to the Indian subcontinent and what gets done here does not get passed on to the Asia-Pacific. In fact, it gets even worse when you go to FBI/CIA/NSA level. Information gets collected, but not analyzed or passed along accurately so much for amrika is supapowuh argument. You cant throw muck at Injun consulates for what is basically a complicated data mining/analysis problem. So yes, it aint silly. And you dont have to be a paki minister to come up with this excuse. I am sure you know enough about the Netflix problem and problems of similar nature and how much crowdsourcing was needed to tackle it, so it only looks sillier to throw muck around without understanding the real issue and floating libel.

Bullshit to you too.
The Indian Consulates in the US don't give a rat's ass about an Indian origin person and they are only interested in their money.

Evidence:
1. Travisa handles all of the paperwork to ensure everything is in order. The data mining argument is disingenuous at best because it pretty easy to filter applicants.
2. For US citizens of Indian origin, the fee for renunciation of Indian citizenship was $200 and then abruptly changed to $20 after complaints.
3. For many older people of Indian origin in the US, who surrendered their Indian passport in the 1960s and 70s, they no longer had an Indian passport to surrender, so they had to provide a birth certificate from India to show proof for renunciation. This is next to impossible if they were born before 1950.
4. If applying for a visa or PIO card, the consulates do not respond to emails or phone calls, and even worse don't acknowledge they have your paperwork after Travisa turns it over to them. I had a situation where a US passport was stuck at CGI Houston and left voice mails at CGI that I would report a missing/stolen passport within a week if CGI Houston could not acknowledge receipt. Lo and behold, 2 days later it shows up with stamped visa by FedEx overnight.
5. If you are an Indian citizen in the US and loose your passport, it is a pain in the ass to get it replaced even though you have the passport number and copies. NO ONE at the consulate will help you.
6. There are allegations of corruption at CGI Houston staff to process your Indian visa. Apparently money will grease the skids and this seems applicable only to persons of Indian origin.
7. Applying for an Indian visitor visa in person is a major pain in the ass and can waste your entire day, but apparently they offer this counter service, why? Just ask everyone to deposit applications, documents and fees with Travisa.

[vish_mulay]

Mortji,
I was helped immensly at NY consulate during 2001-02 period when my passport was stolen. Poor SDRE student with no money or contacts was treated with respect and helped a lot by Indian Consular staff. I for what ever it worth was highly impressed.
I have also got very good impression of Indian embassy staff at Canberra, Australia. Very prompt reply for any quary and very informative. just my 2 paisa.

[Virupaksha]

An Indian visa and PIO card is a privilege, not a right. Indian Consulates in US are for Indian citizens.
PIOs are of (very distant) secondary importance, all their new privileges not withstanding.

When the super efficient massa admin makes people stand outside in hot sun and rain with a min of 5 hr process, for even a visitor visa and a thousand documents as broof (just had to go through this torture process for relatives), I have no sympathy for US citizens waiting/coming to Indian consulate - saying it is a "pain" to even come physically to the Indian consulate.

[Aditya_V]

I have one question: How do TFTA folks like SIdarth Vardarajan get a long term Indian Work Visa in a postion which shapes Public opinion dramatically with so much ease. It is always the Mango Abdul which suffers and follows rules, Dawood Children Hop in study in UK while Mango Indians will be investigated for Terror and Drug Links.

Such is life.

[vera_k]

I think what is being asked for is some consistency. If the consulates want people to come in person for a visa, so be it, but they should say so. Same goes for their contact mechanism - they advertise the phone numbers, but going by experience I'd say they would be better off answering queries over email.

[Virupaksha]

I think what is being asked for is some consistency. If the consulates want people to come in person for a visa, so be it, but they should say so. Same goes for their contact mechanism - they advertise the phone numbers, but going by experience I'd say they would be better off answering queries over email.

ever tried dialling US consulate in India for a visa??

[vera_k]

ever tried dialling US consulate in India for a visa??

That's the point. The US consulates in India don't even claim to entertain phone enquiries. But they respond to email pretty quick.

[Virupaksha]

ever tried dialling US consulate in India for a visa??

That's the point. The US consulates in India don't even claim to entertain phone enquiries. But they respond to email pretty quick.

The phone numbers are given so that Indian citizens can use them.
check here
http://indiacgny.org/php/showContact.ph ... parentid=0

For the visa section, phone number is not given. But the US citizens think that it is their god given right to call the Indian consulate and thus abusing the system. Those phone numbers are given for REAL emergencies. I had a friend(US citizen/PIO) who tried calling the consul general/ambassador directly when his passport was delayed by 2 days.

When such abuses by those who shouldnt be even using it become common, inconsistency will seep in.

[Hari Seldon]

From twitter @dubash:

Republican Presidential Contender Huntsman (Mormon) is raising his Indian Origin adopted daughter as a Hindu. http://bit.ly/mHjkTZ

Interesting, IMO. The non-WASPy folks in massa seem OK with Indians as they are and not as they should be (EJ-ized) seemingly.

[Virupaksha]

Isn't becoming a amby after being FS a ( sort of) demotion?

it seems to be a post retirement post.