Bharat Rakshak

Many Indian officials felt Powell had mishandled the case, which was related to the low wages that Khobragade paid a domestic worker. The arrest was seen by both the Indian government and Modi as U.S. hypocrisy and arrogance.

In response, India clamped down on alleged legal infractions by the embassy, including the visa status of teachers at the American Embassy School, an institution central to the lives of many expatriate employees of U.S. corporations in Delhi.

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But Powell’s departure and its timing, Indian and American officials confirmed, is a direct consequence of perceptions that tensions between the nations escalated under her watch.

“That’s part of the unstated deal,” an American official said. “We want to start over fresh, lay down the ground rules again and send the right signals.”

Powell, Indian officials feel, not only facilitated the Khobragade arrest by not warning Washington about New Delhi’s likely response but also oversaw what was strictly a violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic norms and a violation of Indian tax laws.
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But what angered India more than Khobragade’s arrest was the decision by the US embassy to issue special visas — meant only for family members of trafficking victims — to Richard’s husband and two children.

The US embassy had paid for their tickets to New York. They flew out of India two days before Khobragade was arrested.

Richard and her husband were both named in FIRs by Delhi police at the time. The sequence of events has created a perception among Indian officials that the US was trying to interfere in India’s own legal processes.

The US embassy’s decision to buy tickets for the Richards on a credit card that receives tax exemptions under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was a violation of the global rulebook and of Indian law, New Delhi complained to Washington.
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“It’s ridiculous to expect us to believe that the US ambassador did not know what was happening under her watch,” an Indian official said. “It’s her job to know.”

Replacing her, officials from both countries said, was viewed as a necessary signal that the US is keen to rebuild ties with a new government that India will elect by May.

Indian officials communicated to their American counterparts that they were simply uncomfortable working with Powell – and followed that up by “making it pretty clear that they wanted to minimise engagement with the ambassador”, a US official said.
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In a series of meetings over the past two months, senior officials from the two nations also discussed possible public gestures that would help ease tensions. Those discussions, the US official said, only confirmed American apprehensions that India saw Powell as a hurdle to healing the ties. That’s when the US suggested replacing Powell.

New Delhi: In a sudden development, US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell has resigned from her post, days after media speculation that she may be shipped out. "US Ambassador to India Nancy J Powell announced in a US Mission Town Hall meeting 31 March that she has submitted her resignation to President Obama and, as planned for some time, will retire to her home in Delaware before the end of May," an announcement in the US Embassy website said tonight. US Embassy sources did not want to hazard a guess on the decision of the 67-year-old career service officer to quit her post and return home at a time when India is in an election process and Washington is also deeply interested in its outcome. Nancy Powell was the first US ambassador to meet Narendra Modi. Reuters There was media speculation a week ago that Powell would be replaced with a political appointment as an attempt by the Obama administration to "clean the slate" with India. The report had said Powell had dragged her heels on meeting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and was perceived as being "too close" to the UPA's foreign policy establishment. However, when Washington decided to warm upto Modi, perceived as one of the front runners for the prime minister's post, Powell met Modi on 13 February, ending a nine-year-old boycott of the Gujarat leader on the issue of 2002 riots. The US move marked a u-turn in its earlier stand of having nothing to do with Modi, whose visa it cancelled in 2005 under a domestic law on the issue of "severe violations of religious freedom". Ever since it had refused to review its policy. PTI

ShankarCag wrote:BTW talking of ambassadors here is what Indian ambassador to US had to say
'In 3 years the US will be one of India's major energy providers'
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/in-3- ... 140305.htm
So we will not import cheap gas from Bangladesh/Iran/CIS/Russia but all the way from US. We will also file FIRs against the only pvt party willing to produce gas in India.

Trade in goods was $63.7 billion last year, and US Vice President Joseph Biden last year called for that to grow to half a trillion dollars in five years.

But trade relations were deteriorating even before the diplomatic row and in India's eyes, Powell's tenure never recovered from Khobragade's treatment. India took retaliatory measures against the US embassy, including removing the ambassador's exemption from airport security searches.

Many Indian officials felt Powell had mishandled the case, which was related to the low wages that Khobragade paid a domestic worker. Both the Indian government and Narendra Modi, the opposition candidate who is favourite to become India’s next prime minister after elections that end in May, saw the arrest as US hypocrisy and arrogance.

In response, India clamped down on alleged legal infractions by the embassy, including the visa status of teachers at the American Embassy School, an institution central to the lives of many expatriate employees of US corporations in Delhi.

Powell met Modi in February. The meeting ended a decade-long US boycott of Modi and brought Washington’s policy in line with other major powers that had shunned him because of deadly religious riots that occurred on his watch, but have now warmed to a man who has overseen fast economic growth in his home state of Gujarat.

NOT GETTING MEETINGS

Powell’s meeting with Modi was delayed by two months because of the row over Khobragade, an aide to the candidate told Reuters. A US congressional aide said this was a problem Powell had faced in dealing with other officials as well.

“I had heard she wasn’t really getting meetings with government officials after Khobragade. And that’s an important part of the job. My sense is that would likely only continue with a new government,” said the aide, who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

However, Harf told a regular State Department briefing: “It is in no way related to any tension, any recent situations ... This is the end of a distinguished 37-year career. I think after 37 years, she deserves to retire.”

After Khobragade's arrest, officials in New Delhi said India had bristled at Powell as soon as she was appointed in 2012, since she was not seen as a political appointee close to Obama, despite her decades of knowledge of South Asia.

In a conversation with Reuters in January, one official close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described Powell as a “lemon” - a comment reflecting concerns in India that Obama was not serious about the relationship.

Persis Khambatta of the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank said it was clear Washington had underestimated the depth of feeling in India over the Khobragade affair.


http://www.dhakatribune.com/south-asia/ ... ndia-quits

During Feb 13 meeting Modi didn't mince any words over Khobragade issue

The February 13 meeting between US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell, who has now quit, and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar was frosty enough to convince both the Roosevelt House, the official address of the US Embassy in New Delhi, and White House in Washington D.C. that much needed to be done before American diplomats could aspire to any significant access into a Modi-led government at Raisina Hill.

The Roosevelt House has been somewhat rattled ever since the Powell-Modi meeting, the first by a US Ambassador in nearly a decade, that is ever since the US denied Modi a visa to visit that country in 2005.

The irony of the situation, say sources in South Block and something they think the Americans would be awake to, is that the Chinese and Japanese embassies may come to have a better rapport with a Modi-headed Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) than Americans or any of the other important nations like the UK, France and Germany.

The Modi-Powell meeting of February 13 lasted an hour and a quarter. The two discussed bilateral diplomatic and trade relations. Neither Modi nor Powell brought up the visa issue. Sources privy to the meeting say Modi conveyed to Powell his unhappiness at the manner the US had handled the Devyani Khobragade case.

The conversation was conducted without the help of an interpreter in a mix of Hindi and English, with Modi speaking primarily in Hindi with a smattering of English, while Powell spoke in halting Hindi but preferring English to discuss some of the more complex issues. A senior bureaucrat sat within earshot to assist the two.

Sources say the feedback of the meeting with South Block, and something that brought cheer to Indian diplomatic corps, was Modi having reportedly castigated the Americans over the Khobragade issue. “Our information is the Americans returned from the meeting somewhat rattled,” says a source.

According to sources, Modi said to Powell that Khobragade as a diplomat was treated shabbily and hoped Powell, as she was herself a diplomat, would empathise with Khobragade’s situation. “Our assessment is the Roosevelt House took this as veiled warning that American diplomats shouldn’t expect any special treatment from a Modi-led government, something the Roosevelt House was quite accustomed to from the UPA prior to the Khobragade controversy,” said a source. Bureaucrats close to Modi also told the visiting American delegation that the CM had no desire to visit the US. “The Americans cannot stop him from visiting the UN in New York during the General Assembly. Beyond that the CM has little fascination for visiting the US,” said a source.

According to sources, what has galled those close to Modi, bureaucrats and influential American Indians alike, was that for all these years the Roosevelt House let UPA ministers influence its decisions on Modi’s visa and whether the Americans should engage with the Gujarat CM or not.

“We have reasons to believe that key UPA ministers and even a couple of senior bureaucrats convinced the Americans to not engage with Modi,” said a source in the BJP. Both South Block and BJP sources say it was unlikely that Modi’s ascendance to the prime ministerial chair would impact the bigger picture of India-US relations. “But what may change is the ease of doing business that American diplomats were used to in the UPA dispensation,” said a source. This is what the US would try address by bringing in new faces at the Roosevelt House, possibly from the influential Gujarati community in America, to reduce the trust deficit.

The US delayed its outreach to Modi when many other western nations relented after he returned as the Gujarat CM for the third successive time in end-2012. The then British High Commissioner James Bevan called on Modi in October 2012, a couple of months before the Gujarat assembly elections. “Der aaye durust aaye,” said Modi of that meeting then. German Ambassador Michael Steiner hosted a lunch for Modi on behalf of all European Union countries a month after his assembly election victory in January 2013.

Modi has particularly good relations with the Chinese, claims his website. He has visited the country thrice as the CM of Gujarat, last in November 2011 when he was hosted at the Great Hall of People. “The reason is simple. The Chinese admire strong leaders. They find it easier to do business with leaders who can deliver on their promises,” says a source close to Modi.

The Russian ambassador to India publicly lauded Modi’s third successive electoral victory in Gujarat in December 2012. Modi has also visited Japan, South Korea and other east Asian countries. The Israeli embassy has also kept up regular contact with Modi during his years as Gujarat CM. Sources close to Modi say the Gujarat administration under him has had friendly relations with business communities from most of India’s neighbours, particularly Pakistan. They say business delegations from Karachi, the capital of neighbouring Sindh province of Pakistan, have visited Gujarat often. Bangladesh High Commissioner Tariq A. Karim called on Modi in Gandhinagar last July.

TKiran wrote:Nancy Powell was in Hyderabad in Feb, after Telangana bill was passed in LS and it was to be passed in RS. Failure to provoke violence in Hyderabad after loads n loads of $s spent to create Arab Spring type situation in hyderabad could be the primary reason for her humiliation. She also lobbied to NM to co-operate with Congis in Telangana split. They care the f(ck about DK incident, they truly truly spent billions for AP split, but there has been no violence so far it was a waste of money. They gave loads n loads of $s to Sonia Gandhi in July when she agreed to split AP. The commitment was only to pass the bill in parliament, no commitment for subsequent violence. As the bill was passed in Parliament, Powel thought, now she can stir Arab Spring and gave loads of $s to local goons in Hyderabad. They ate all that money, and showed their middle finger to powell. She could not even trace the $s where it has gone. GOTUS was very angry for her incompetence when they created fertile ground for trouble making. Their patience has run out.

As pointed, expect a very competentUS Ambassador to India who can create situations like Egypt, Libya Ukraine in the next 2 to 3 years time in India

TKiran wrote:Nancy Powell was in Hyderabad in Feb, after Telangana bill was passed in LS and it was to be passed in RS. Failure to provoke violence in Hyderabad after loads n loads of $s spent to create Arab Spring type situation in hyderabad could be the primary reason for her humiliation. She also lobbied to NM to co-operate with Congis in Telangana split. They care the f(ck about DK incident, they truly truly spent billions for AP split, but there has been no violence so far it was a waste of money. They gave loads n loads of $s to Sonia Gandhi in July when she agreed to split AP. The commitment was only to pass the bill in parliament, no commitment for subsequent violence. As the bill was passed in Parliament, Powel thought, now she can stir Arab Spring and gave loads of $s to local goons in Hyderabad. They ate all that money, and showed their middle finger to powell. She could not even trace the $s where it has gone. GOTUS was very angry for her incompetence when they created fertile ground for trouble making. Their patience has run out.

As pointed, expect a very competentUS Ambassador to India who can create situations like Egypt, Libya Ukraine in the next 2 to 3 years time in India

The more the Indians looked, the more outraged they became. School administrators have quietly admitted that for years the school undertook a variety of tax-avoidance schemes, including one in which they instructed some female teachers whose husbands also worked at the school to list their occupations on visa applications as “housewife.”

Indian officials are refusing to renew teacher visas until the case is resolved, leading nearly 20 teachers to leave in recent weeks. Without a quick resolution, nearly a quarter of the school’s teaching staff could be forced to leave before classes end in June. If the controversy remains unsettled into the fall, the school — widely considered one of the best international schools in the world and a key recruiting tool here — could close.

Just as worrisome to executives are Indian threats to close the American club, known as ACSA, which has a swimming pool, bowling alley, baseball diamond, restaurant and hair salon. To the Indians, the club is an insulting colonial holdover because it accepts Americans and those sponsored by diplomats, which means Indians are largely excluded.

Yogi_G wrote:Not just the Chinese, the world over everyone "respects" a strong leader who stands up to his people and interests. Liking is a different story. Everyone respected Lee Kuan Yew and mocked Gorbachev and Yelstin but the west liked these two.

In the wake of December’s arrest and strip-search in New York of Devyani Khobragade, an Indian consular official, Indian diplomats have begun a series of investigations into the American Embassy School, the United States duty-free commissary and the American Community Support Association, a recreational club for expatriates on the United States Embassy compound.

Similar facilities at other embassies are not threatened. To mollify the Indians, the club, financed by fees from expatriates, is now closed on Mondays.

UlanBatori wrote:U know, I HOPE some desi editar sees this: the REALLY REALLY NEEDED banner headline is

DELHI TAX FRAUD SCANDAL: AMERICAN AMBASSADOR RESIGNS
Paco in line for job. "Most qualified but too honest" - UBCNews Expert Commentary