Bharat Rakshak

India ends expat privileges in response to Khobragade suit



India ordered the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to stop all "commercial activities" at a club it operates and submit the club's tax returns by Jan. 16, as the diplomatic spat over the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York City continues (BBC, Guardian, Indian Express, WSJ). The club, the American Community Support Association, offers American citizens and their families' access to a bar, restaurant, recreational facilities, and imported duty-free items. An Indian government notice said the club's operation was "incompatible with the functions of the mission and a clear violation of Article 41 (3) of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961."


"These facilities within the premises of a mission are only meant for diplomats," a senior foreign ministry official told the Washington Post, adding that: "If it is extended to non-diplomats, then it becomes a commercial venture and they should have paid taxes in India" (Post). The Indian government also asked the embassy to stop screening movies without the necessary domestic licenses and told the New Delhi police to stop granting immunity to embassy vehicles for traffic violations. Khobragade was detained on Dec. 12 on charges of visa fraud and underpaying her maid. New Delhi continues to exert diplomatic pressure in the hope that the State Department will grant Khobragade a G1 visa, which would protect her from prosecution.

Meanwhile, Ms Khobragade's lawyers in the US have requested an extension of the 13 January deadline for her indictment. But their plea has been opposed by the prosecution.

Gus wrote:i don't understand why nobody in US can't step up and get this resolved.

clearly, they have more to lose here given the extra privileges their entire diplo/consular corps were enjoying in india.

Gus wrote:i don't understand why nobody in US can't step up and get this resolved.

clearly, they have more to lose here given the extra privileges their entire diplo/consular corps were enjoying in india.

chaanakya wrote:Yeah, but why would USD take first step. India , on the contrary , seems to be bending backwards to give enough time to USD to mend the relations.

FOR THE past decade, senior U.S. officials have portrayed India as an emerging strategic partner of the United States as well as an emerging power, a democracy that respects the rule of law and shares U.S. values. It’s mostly a true story, even if the rosy view of the bilateral relationship has never entirely been reciprocated on the Indian side. But there remains a considerable political and cultural divide between the countries — as the ongoing furor over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York has vividly illustrated.From the point of view of U.S. law enforcement, the case of Devyani Khobragade, a consular official in New York, is straightforward: She, like a distressingly large number of foreign diplomats posted to the United States, exploited a domestic employee in violation of U.S. law. Ms. Khobragade allegedly submitted to the State Department a contract that promised to pay a housekeeper $9.75 an hour for 40 hours a week but separately gave the housekeeper a different contract at $3.31 an hour and required her to work many more hours. She would not be the first Indian diplomat to commit this offense. At least two other high-ranking officials have been sued by domestic employees in New York since 2010.with common criminals and drug addicts” after her Dec. 12 arrest. In fact there was no cavity search, according to the U.S. Marshals Service, which handles transport for federal prisoners, and Ms. Khobragade was offered a few courtesies by State Department officials before being subjected to the same booking procedure as every other New York criminal defendant. Yet Indians — accustomed to domestic labor practices considered intolerable in the United States — perceived her treatment as the deliberate humiliation of a woman representing their country.The Indian government has compounded tensions with high-decibel rhetoric and a vindictive campaign against U.S. diplomats in New Delhi. Its bullying measures have ranged from the petty — withdrawing the U.S. Embassy’s permit to import alcohol — to the irresponsible — removing security barricades from the street in front of the facility. Employees of embassy officials are being investigated for alleged offenses including working at American schools without proper paperwork.Indian officials describe this harassment as a reciprocal response to the arrest of Ms. Khobragade, but it is not. She was the subject of a criminal investigation by a U.S. attorney acting independently. India is responding with investigations and administrative actions directed by the government for political ends — a tactic common in authoritarian states such as Russia or China but unworthy of a democracy. In a letter The Post published Monday, the Indian Embassy in Washington claimed that Ms. Khobragade’s employee had “gamed” U.S. laws to gain admission to the country. If that’s true, there’s nothing to stop Ms. Khobragade from making the case in court.In fact U.S. prosecutors and the diplomat’s attorneys appear to be seeking to negotiate a settlement of the case. That would certainly be the best outcome for both governments. As it is, both have suffered serious image damage. Indians may think U.S. officials have no respect for their dignitaries. Americans, for their part, have reason to wonder about a would-be ally that considers stripping U.S. diplomats of security measures an appropriate way of expressing displeasure

Jhujar wrote:U.S.-Indian cultural, political divide revealed by diplomat’s arrest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html

News reports out of New York highlight the arrest of an Indian consular official for allegedly underpaying her domestic servant, and for misrepresenting the salary on a U.S. visa application. The U.S. State Department assisted in the arrest, claiming for itself a “victory” in the war on human trafficking. Not paying a fair wage is wrong. What is also wrong is for the State Department to be following a double-standard in what it expects from foreign diplomats, and what it expects from its own.Rape
According to court documents, a U.S. Department of State diplomat and her husband tricked an Ethiopian woman into accompanying them as their domestic servant to Japan, where they held her virtually as a prisoner in their home and forced her to work for them for less than $1 per hour and where the husband repeatedly raped the woman with his diplomat wife’s consent. A Virginia federal judge awarded the victim $3.3 million in damages on a default judgment against the couple. The diplomat retired from the State Department with full pension and then fled the country.The victim, identified only as “Jane Doe,” told the court she was hired by the Howards in 2008 as a live-in housekeeper at the couple’s home in Yemen, where Linda Howard worked at the U.S. embassy. Doe says she agreed to move with the couple to Japan after Linda Howard was transferred to the embassy there and that she was promised wages of $300 per month, time off each week, health insurance and a safe place to live and work.
Once in Japan, Doe says, Russell Howard repeatedly raped her, forced her to perform oral sex and sexually assaulted her. Doe says Linda Howard was complicit in her husband’s sexual abuse, telling Doe that she should gratify her husband and make him happy. Doe, who speaks little English and no Japanese, says the Howards also used nonphysical force, such as isolation and threats of deportation, to coerce her into servitude.”

matrimc wrote:The most telling line from that puke from WaPo Editorial Board
"bullying tactics - actions not worthy of a democracy". They have gone off their rocker.

JE Menon wrote:This is no considered editorial... It is a pandering to predisposition and prejudice among the kind of people the Post believes to be its readership.

Theo_Fidel wrote:I still think Obama could end this all with a pardon.

pankajs wrote:Reciprocal response to an Indian diplomat being arrested, handcuffed, strip searched and cavity searched is to arrest, handcuff, strip-search and cavity search an American diplomat in India. No more no less. Lets not bring in other issues into this at this point of time.

Of course the non-reciprocal privileges enjoyed by US diplomats in India should be eliminated.

matrimc wrote:Isn't it against the US constitution for the executive to meddle in the judicial process.

Even as India stepped up pressure on the United States by ordering the closure of some facilities at its embassy in Delhi in connection with the alleged visa fraud case against its New York-based diplomat Devyani Khobragade, differences have cropped up between the IFS officer and the Ministry of External Affairs over the plea bargain offer from US Attorney Preet Bharara.
US authorities, predicated on Khobragade pleading guilty in the case, are willing to waive her prison term while recognising it as a criminal offence, it is learnt.

Khobragade was open to taking this discussion further with just one condition — an assurance that any criminal record from the case will not impede her from entering the US in the future, be it in obtaining a visa or related law-enforcement issues, as she is married to a US national.

The MEA, however, put its foot down, saying the government could not accept any deal which will frame this case as a criminal offence as that could hurt similar cases besides complicating matters for those currently posted in the US.

The starting point for any legal deal, sources said, was to convert this case into a civil offence confined to the alleged underpayment of wages to Khobragade's maid Sangeeta Richard. All previous cases involving Indian diplomats and their domestic helps in the US have been civil offences.

But if that is done, the US would suffer some loss of face as Khobragade had been arrested on trafficking charges and those were the grounds on which Richard's family was moved out of Delhi by the US embassy.

For the government, it's learnt, facilitating Khobragade's unimpeded re-entry into the US is not a priority as much as ensuring she gets diplomatic accreditation (G-1 visa) from the US state department following her transfer to the United Nations. Once that is done, the government may even move her out of the US after some time.
...
..
The dialogue was set for January 15-16 and it is believed the Indian side has suggested a postponement given the present acrimony in the relationship. The US, on the other hand, has conveyed that both sides should not let this issue affect other aspects of the relationship.

But South Block is in no such mood. It has planned a range of measures targeting US diplomats in India. Starting with simpler steps like stripping some diplomatic privileges to preparing grounds for serious legal action, all options are being explored.

The anger, it is learnt, has multiplied in the past week or so after the MEA established that it was the State Department which had taken the lead and sought prosecution in the case.
...

matrimc wrote:The most telling line from that puke from WaPo Editorial Board
"bullying tactics - actions not worthy of a democracy". They have gone off their rocker.

putnanja wrote:Devyani wants freedom to return to US but MEA has other plans for plea deal

...

Khobragade was open to taking this discussion further with just one condition — an assurance that any criminal record from the case will not impede her from entering the US in the future, be it in obtaining a visa or related law-enforcement issues, as she is married to a US national.

The MEA, however, put its foot down, saying the government could not accept any deal which will frame this case as a criminal offence as that could hurt similar cases besides complicating matters for those currently posted in the US.

...

...

putnanja wrote:Devyani wants freedom to return to US but MEA has other plans for plea deal

The starting point for any legal deal, sources said, was to convert this case into a civil offence confined to the alleged underpayment of wages to Khobragade's maid Sangeeta Richard. All previous cases involving Indian diplomats and their domestic helps in the US have been civil offences.
...
The anger, it is learnt, has multiplied in the past week or so after the MEA established that it was the State Department which had taken the lead and sought prosecution in the case.
...

If the state department took the lead for prosecution, it is their responsibility to ensure that DK is released without any charges. For India, it is not just for one person, any other diplomat can be blackmailed similarly in future too.

PB is irrelevant here. SD initiated it, SD has to end it.

arshyam wrote:

matrimc wrote:Isn't it against the US constitution for the executive to meddle in the judicial process.

I don't understand how that works, considering federal DAs and SC judges are appointed by the executive w/legislature's approval. Wasn't PB appointed by Obama?