Bharat Rakshak

putnanja wrote:Better save all the documents on that site and snapshots of the site before the AES website goes down too

prasannasimha wrote:... Methink's that they will have to finally aquit her and some fall guy will have to take the blame.Bets between Wayne or the Mark guy.PB will have some answering probably later to do and is also an easy fall guy .

An Ethical Person

Does the ‘right’ thing, instead of the expedient thing
Practices honesty and truthfulness as a way of life
Strives for integrity

prasannasimha wrote:he 2013-2014 Board of Governors appreciates your interest and would like to hear from you. General correspondence may be addressed to the Board in care of Ms. Latha Srinivasan ([email protected]) in the Director's office.

TSJones wrote:Who settled the US and for what reasons did they come here? Purely economics like you guys do?

Lalmohan wrote:...
worrying about US schools in india (that serve this purpose) is not worth the effort
...
tourists - who have chosen to come to another part of the world.

Madhusudhan wrote:Made it to NY Post without as much condescension:

http://nypost.com/2014/01/15/american-d ... ams-india/

prasannasimha wrote:quote : Exclusive: US embassy staff under the lens for multi-year multi-crore tax evasion http://dlvr.it/4jNTQk

This thing is turning out to be more of an embarrassment. They are going to go into the death by a thousand meetings and death by a thousand cuts type of attrition which Babus can be famous for ! I suspect this thing will keep going on till Khobargade is acquitted. Methink's that they will have to finally aquit her and some fall guy will have to take the blame.Bets between Wayne or the Mark guy.PB will have some answering probably later to do and is also an easy fall guy .

Lilo wrote:

The 350-pound "Vishnu and Lakshmi" sandstone sculpture was pilfered in 2009 from a temple in the Indian state of Rajasthan.

RCase wrote:

Madhusudhan wrote:Made it to NY Post without as much condescension:

http://nypost.com/2014/01/15/american-d ... ams-india/

Small mercies. At least posted the exact statements by the Mays, rather than TOILet altering the really offensive one to a milder version.

Regarding the return of a few artifacts ... why the charade at this juncture? I am always amused with similar token gestures by the Chinese in releasing one or two dissidents just when there is some strategic meeting or visit, while continuing with business as usual.

matrimc wrote:

Lilo wrote:
{quote}The 350-pound "Vishnu and Lakshmi" sandstone sculpture was pilfered in 2009 from a temple in the Indian state of Rajasthan.
{/quote}

Those two sculptures are exquisite. No wonder people want to "own" them even going to the extent of putting their own liberty at risk.

WASHINGTON: India and the United States appeared to put the Khobragade issue on the backburner on Tuesday notwithstanding simmering differences arising from the episode, as the two sides pushed ahead with the larger strategic agenda that includes defense and energy cooperation.

US deputy secretary of state William Burns hosted a lunch for Indian ambassador S Jaishankar at the state department at which they "affirmed the importance of US-India strategic partnership", and while agreeing that the past several weeks have been "challenging," the State Department said on Tuesday.

The two officials "affirmed our shared commitment to continue joint US-India work on issues such as clean energy and climate change, defense, economic and trade engagement, counterterrorism, and civil nuclear development," and to that end, they discussed initial preparations for a range of upcoming bilateral meetings and exchanges, a media note from the State Department said.

Reflecting the continued tussle over issues arising from the Khobragade episode, the statement also disclosed the two officials also discussed a variety of issues raised by India's ministry of external affairs via a diplomatic note, "including alleged issues with the American Embassy School." Burns, it said, conveyed that Washington "takes the concerns very seriously and will continue to address them via appropriate diplomatic channels."

The Indian note, which stems from the reciprocity principle that New Delhi has now invoked followed what it believes is an egregious and over-the-top US action on its diplomat Devyani Khobragade in her dispute with her housekeeper, questions various commercial activities undertaken by the US embassy and its officials.

New Delhi has evidently drawn up this list to underscore the fact that there was a relatively relaxed interpretation of rules and laws among diplomatic corps on both sides, and as long as the violations were not flagrant, invoking criminal provisions, as the US did in the case of Khobragade, is inimical to conduct of bilateral ties.

The fundamental proposition India is making is that domestic laws and law-enforcement cannot be allowed to hijack foreign relations — particularly when the offense involved is not serious — by ham-handed and heavy-handed officials pursuing a personal agenda. As far as New Delhi is concerned, there is little evidence that the housekeeper was ill-treated by the diplomat; if anything, the prosecution ignored testimony that showed he was happy and satisfied with her working condition and wage agreement before she developed her plans to emigrate.

The Indian side is vehemently of the belief that criminalizing the charges against Devyani Khobragade, on the basis of dubious allegations that cherry-picked facts, ill-served bilateral ties.

This broadly is the message Ambassador Jaishankar is also seeking to convey in a series of meetings on the Hill, where lawmakers have held their counsel on an issue that inflamed the mood at the lower levels of the executive and law-enforcement side.

Jaishankar met house Speaker John Boehner and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein, among others on Tuesday, following up meeting earlier in the weeks with senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and Congressmen Jim McDermott and Eliot Engel.

Meanwhile, Devyani Khobragade's attorney Daniel Arshack asked on the New York court where the case was being heard to dismiss the proceedings against her citing the immunity granted to her. "It is apparent that the immunity which cloaked Dr Khobragade on Dec 12, 2013, should have prevented her arrest, handcuffing, jailing, strip searching and imposition of bail conditions," Arshack wrote to Manhattan federal judge Shira Scheindlin, who has yet to rule.

"Dr Khobragade now formally moves this court to dismiss the instant proceeding, to rescind the conditions of her release and eliminate her bail conditions as she is immune from criminal prosecution in the United States," Arshack said in the filing.

Separately, the two countries also raised the profile of a cooperative story to symbolically convey that things are returning to normal after a month fraught with tension. US authorities on Tuesday returned to the Indian government one of the world's most-wanted stolen pieces of art, a 350-pound "Vishnu and Lakshmi" sandstone sculpture was pilfered in 2009 from a temple in Rajasthan, in a choreographed ceremony at the New York consulate where Khobragade served.

ramana wrote:Harboring such ideas is hubris

putnanja wrote:VICARIOUS PLEASURES - Watching Uncle Sam being outwitted on his own terrain : K.P. Nayar

...
........ Unfortunately, even as they daily face from the American bureaucracy the kind of treatment that the Indian deputy consul-general in New York faced — albeit in lesser and varying degrees — they are made to suffer in silence more by their own political bosses back at headquarters, who like to be more American than the Americans themselves.
...
......

matrimc wrote:AmberG ji: I am still mystified by Ms. Harf's highlighting of "arms control, nonproliferation, ...". Is that all that comes to DoS's mind when they think of talks with India? Very Pavlovian, I would say. Sure, no problem if the US is really interested in Universal Disarmament and limiting illegal proliferation by China. But I suspect the statement points to their need to give lectures to India. Rake this up at a time when we (as in US) are in the wrong is going to make the party turn antagonistic.

..US embassy has sought a meeting with the MEA officials to seek restoration of airport passes for its diplomats, besides a review of the government directive to shut down American Club.
...
Meanwhile, a different kind of trouble seems to be brewing, with diplomats of other foreign countries in Delhi asking for similar privileges that were once accorded to the US diplomats.

ramana wrote:The thing to ask when will UK emulate the US gesture and return the stolen Indian artifacts gracing the Windsor castle and other museums?

matrimc wrote:

TSJones wrote:Who settled the US and for what reasons did they come here? Purely economics like you guys do?

What gave you the idea every single one of "you guys" is here solely for economic reasons? It is part of the deal - if I do a good job I get paid, no? At least the minimum wages. But then if all those employed in textiles industry world over come here, then how can anybody here get a $75 jeans for $25

matrimc wrote:AmberG ji: I am still mystified by Ms. Harf's highlighting of "arms control, nonproliferation, ...". Is that all that comes to DoS's mind when they think of talks with India? ...

pankajs wrote: ....
The current scenario looks the same. The Americans are all set to be embarrassed as one of their major media flagships—New York Times—is expected to come up with a damning disclosure on the same lines.

SaiK wrote:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 810571.cms "My daughter refused plea bargaining and refused to pay any fine. This is a common scam in the US where criminal charges are pressed for permanent resident status and money extorted. This is then split between the so-called victim and those who aid them. My daughter refused to pay," said Khobragade.

ramana wrote:I googled Rudra Chaudhri. He is a young scholar at King's College London and is one of the new generation of coconuts.

ramana wrote:The thing to ask when will UK emulate the US gesture and return the stolen Indian artifacts gracing the Windsor castle and other museums?

A maid rattles US – India ties
Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR
30.12.2013

00:00
A first rate diplomatic row has erupted over the heavy-handed arrest and detention of India’s deputy consul-general in New York Devyani Khobragade a fortnight ago by the US authorities. The charge against her is that she willfully committed a visa fraud by submitting a visa application for her domestic help Sangeeta Richard, which allegedly contained false and inaccurate statements.

The Indian diplomat was arrested on a public street in Manhattan, New York, on December 12 morning, held in a cell and was released on bail after executing a bond of quarter of a million dollars and surrendering her diplomatic passport. The case has been slated for hearing in the US court in mid-January.

By Khobragade’s account, «I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, hold up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of (diplomatic) immunity».

The US lobbyists in the Indian media insist that it is a discord over varying interpretations of diplomatic privileges and immunities under the Vienna Convention. But the shadow play is significant. Many intriguing elements remain unexplained:

- The US authorities kept the actual whereabouts of Richard a closely guarded secret for the past several months.

- The Indians made several demarche over the past six months with the US state department that there is a Delhi High Court injunction seeking Richard’s repatriation to India to stand trial, but they were ignored.

- Finally, in a covert operation, American embassy in Delhi bought the air tickets and spirited away Richard’s family members to the US just prior to the arrest of Khobragade.

- Quite obviously, Richard has become a valuable «asset» for the US.

- The US been aware for years, if not decades, that the domestic staff of Indian diplomats use official passports and are paid wages by Indian norms – in this case, US$ 500 as net monthly income (or savings) plus air passages to New York, home leave fares, comprehensive medical coverage and free housing and lodging in diplomatic premises, all paid for by the Indian government. These norms are well-known to the US embassy and are, actually, far above the quality of life available for tens of millions of Americans, both Blacks and Whites. Nonetheless, a diplomatic row has been precipitated.

- The despicable and barbaric treatment meted out to Khobragade was far out of proportion to the alleged crime she committed.

- Washington even risked bringing into the crosshairs the glaring asymmetry between the seamless diplomatic privileges and immunities accorded to the US consular staff posted in India by its specious plea that Vienna Convention did not provide for immunity for the Indian diplomats posted in the consulate in New York. The Khobragade case is, clearly, a high-stakes game.

From all appearance, the US intelligence was masterminding the case and the State Department played a secondary role as the «front desk». In fact, the Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was holding consultations in the state department in Washington when the operation against Khobragade was about to be mounted in Manhattan, but the American side kept her in darkness.

All things put together, therefore, the impression becomes unavoidable that Washington kicked up the nasty diplomatic row to deflect attention from the whereabouts of Richard as such. Indeed, the discourse has instead taken either an intellectual form dwelling on the mystique of the Vienna Convention or other salacious issues such as the lifestyle of Indian diplomats in general, their capacity for humility or «non-feudal» behavior and so on. According to sources, the American embassy in Delhi has been doing terrific media management.

Unsurprisingly, Delhi has focused its efforts in the first instance on getting the US authorities to drop the charges against Khobragade. However, the US will expect a «deal» that involves making the closure of the criminal case against Khobragade conditional on their not having to hand over Richard to Indian custody. The bottom line will be Richard’s «immunity» from interrogation by the Indian security agencies.

Why such paranoia? The reading in Delhi is that Richard colluded with her American handlers to frame the Indian diplomat. Indeed, it doesn’t need much ingenuity to figure out the shadow play of espionage. Edward Snowden’s disclosures revealed that the security of the Indian diplomatic and consular establishments has been comprehensively breached by the US intelligence. The point is, Richard worked as a maid in the Indian compound in New York where the diplomats posted in the consulate and in the permanent mission to the United Nations live.

Delhi traditionally adopted a relaxed attitude toward the American diplomatic establishments. It has now begun talking about reciprocity. Delhi could haul up dozens of American diplomats posted in India for open violation of Indian laws. For example, family members of US diplomats take gainful employment in India without taking permission from the foreign ministry, as they are expected to, and do not even pay income tax. The US embassy and consulates in India employ local staff at wages that are far below the prescribed norms in America.

A denouement to the diplomatic row is inevitable at some point. But the core issue remains, namely, there has been extensive US intelligence penetration of India in the recent years. Alas, a lackadaisical attitude has developed amongst the Indian elites generally over the US’ track record of subverting foreign countries. Even reasonably intelligent people suspend disbelief and indulge in esoteric interpretations of the Vienna Convention and diplomatic immunity to explain away what happened.

However, the good thing is that a maid has rattled the US-India ties. What happened over the past fortnight brought to the surface the state of play in the US-Indian relationship, although rhetorically it has been hailed as the «defining partnership of the 21 st century».

The neocon rhetoric is wearing thin. In sum, India’s reluctance to be party to the US’ rebalance strategy in Asia irks Washington and the Indian market failed to generate massive business opportunities for US companies, belying the hopes in Washington. In turn, India feels frustrated that the high hopes raised by the 2008 US-India nuclear deal have petered out.

However, nothing much will really change in the alchemy of the US-Indian relationship. No matter the rhetoric, it has been a transactional relationship where both sides did cherry-picking. Ironically, amidst the current diplomatic row, India and the US signed in Delhi on Friday yet another mega defence deal for supply of six more C-130J «Super Hercules» aircraft.

Delhi knows the Americans will make a few hundred million dollars worth profit out of this $1.01 billion deal, but then, India apparently needs this awesome product for the modernization of its armed forces and is willing to pay the asking price.

Equally, the Americans are eagerly awaiting the Indian orders for M-177 ultra-light howitzers, Apache attack helicopters, Chinook heavy-life helicopters and P8I maritime patrol planes – all worth another cool $4.3 billion. These are deals stuck outside the ambit of open global tenders or competitive bidding and are worth their weight in gold.

Suffice to say, the US will be anxious to get over the hump. For the Indian elites, too, life without America is unthinkable. A columnist of Times of India newspaper wrote yesterday that the Indian expatriate community in America is mighty upset with Khobragade. Indeed, that is entirely plausible. The «NRIs» in North America (Non-Resident Indians) are largely drawn from the upper castes of Hindu society and have extensive social kinships with the elites in Delhi. (Khobragade is a ‘Dalit’ woman.)

Besides, the US also effectively leverages the so-called CEOs Forum, which comprises powerful figures in the Indian corporate industry who are stakeholders in the US-Indian partnership.

The Richard file is the third glaring instance that came to light in the recent years regarding robust American espionage activities in India. The previous two have been shoved under the carpet with delectable ease, thanks to political interference. The Richard file was receiving the attention of the Indian counter-intelligence as far back as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to New York in September. Evidently, no one in the Indian bureaucracy showed the gumption to upset the apple cart of the US-Indian defining partnership of the 21st century.

saip wrote:

ramana wrote:The thing to ask when will UK emulate the US gesture and return the stolen Indian artifacts gracing the Windsor castle and other museums?

Every time that topic comes up, India's friendly neighbors to the west pipe up and say our share, our share! That they mostly neglect if not outright destroy Hindu artifacts in their country does not count.

Bring Washington to Its Senses
Posted on December 27, 2013 by Bharat Karnad

One wishes that in matters of terrorist strikes and diplomatic provocations of the kind that the Devyani Khobragade affair represents, the Indian government had the wit and long discovered the merit of reacting instantly and in tit-for-tat manner. Thus, the 26/11 and, earlier the attack on Parliament, should have been answered within 20 minutes of the onset of the attacks with Indian Air Force sorties out of Udhampur to decimate Lashkar-e-Taiba training sites, concentration areas, and supply depots in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the co-ordinates for which targets are readily available. And once the atrocious treatment of the Indian deputy consul general (DCG) at the hands of the US Marshals became known, an immediate counter ought to have been the public arrest of one of the American DCGs posted in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata and a proper “cavity search” by rough-hewn local cops. This option is unavailable to India now as it will appear calculated, not reflexive.

Instead, in each instance New Delhi’s seemingly incurable habit of inaction kicked in. 26/11 was responded to with mere threats, the attack on Parliament by time-consuming “mobilisation for general war” that achieved nothing, and the outrage against the Indian DCG by tarrying, with the urgency and value of immediate like-action being lost as the external affairs minister Salman Khurshid sought “dialogue” with Washington. Procrastination reduced India’s honour to a trifle-able commodity and the principle of parity of treatment of diplomats a joke.

The more the situation unfolded the clearer it became that this was a larger drama contrived between the self-promoting and ambitious Preet Bharara, the ex-Chandigarh NRI and US attorney for Manhattan (2nd District), and the Bureau for Diplomatic Security (BDS) within the US state department responsible for the security of foreign diplomats displaying sheer incompetence or, alternatively, seeking to stir up momentary excitement. Bharara knew perfectly well how this action would burnish his reputation in US circles and play out in India. The BDS apparently deliberately ignored the informal understanding Washington has with a bunch of European and Third World nations, including India, regarding domestic help brought into the US by diplomats on A-3 or G-5 visas who earn wages that are sub-par only by the US standard. This year, some 2,200 such visas were issued by the US state department. But it was Bharara’s call to home in only on Khobragade that BDS acquiesced in.

True to its nature, the slack-willed Manmohan Singh government stuck to its by now well-known script by doing little beyond ending the system of unilateral benefits the US embassy and consulates and US-origin staff have enjoyed from the ’60s onwards their Indian counterparts stationed in America can only dream of. Absent a reciprocal agreement relating to terms and conditions of work, and the slate of rights, privileges, exemptions, and immunities the diplomats of the two nations will henceforth enjoy, Washington should be warned that the US diplomats and US-origin consular staff, who are paid a handsome sum as “hardship-posting” allowance in India, will start earning it. Absolute parity of treatment down to the minutest detail will obtain decorum and balance so far missing in the bilateral relations.

Sadly, India subsided in the face of US secretary of state John Kerry’s merely expressing “regrets” and undersecretary Wendy Sherman “remorse” which, considering the perverse behaviour of the US Marshals against Khobragade, amounted to salting the wound. New Delhi is even wavering in its demand for an unambiguous apology combined with closure of the case against the DCG in New York—the minimum needed in the circumstances. How the US government manages that is its business. New Delhi need only insist it will be satisfied with nothing less.

This disruptive episode in India-US relations points to two very dissimilar trends—one regarding the conduct of Indian foreign policy, the other concerning subterranean forces busily at work to undermine India strategically, with the former assisting the latter. The fact is harsh actions at the ground or tactical level are in no way antithetical to strategically burgeoning bilateral ties as long as the two streams are not mixed up. Practising an almost amateurish brand of diplomacy, New Delhi seems unable to pull it off. The Indian government expects that mutually beneficial ties must result in benignity all-round and that, as in this case, a friendly US had no business dealing in an unfriendly manner with an Indian envoy. This is to ignore the bureaucratic politics constantly buffeting policies in large countries.
{Complexity theory argument}

In Washington, there is a powerful lobby within the state department that is unconvinced that getting close to India will benefit the US much. An equally strong lobby in the US department of defence, motivated by emerging Asian geopolitics, a declining military budget and capacity for projecting power, is persuaded that without India drawing China’s attention away from the East Sea and the western Pacific, the US may have its hands fuller than it would wish. The reason for the outrage Khobragade experienced—attributed by some to the Obama administration’s supposedly growing “indifference” to India—doesn’t make sense, because from the US perspective too much is at stake for the “strategic partnership” to be so casually imperiled, particularly as strong Indo-US security links are deemed prudent and necessary by both countries.

What then is the best riposte, albeit belated, to the evidence of an unacceptable US attitude? India has just the leverage—an analog of the A-3 visa conundrum faced by the ministry of external affairs when posting diplomats to the US, where hiring native domestic help is unaffordable but taking Indian servants along risks Indian diplomats to arbitrary invocation by the US authorities of legally-enforceable standards of minimum wage. It can require that the large horde of Indians employed by the US embassy and consulates be paid salaries at the US-level, which will raise the wage-bill manifold. And, besides imposing curbs on US diplomats, several multi-billion dollar arms deals in the pipeline should be frozen. It will quickly bring Washington to its senses.

[Published in New Indian Express,27th December 2013 at http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinion ... 966731.ece

putnanja wrote:VICARIOUS PLEASURES - Watching Uncle Sam being outwitted on his own terrain : K.P. Nayar

When Bill Clinton was going to India in 2000, the first American presidential visit in 22 years, T.P. Sreenivasan, then deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Washington, received a phone-call from a senior US official a few days before Clinton’s travel. The official matter-of-factly informed the senior diplomat that US marines, who were part of the president’s security detail, would be leaving for New Delhi that afternoon. In the course of the conversation, Sreenivasan asked as a gesture of courtesy if everything went well with the visa procurement for the marines and if he could help with any arrangements. Sreenivasan could not believe his ears when the US official said the marines had made no effort to get visas. “Our marines do not travel with passports. They do not need visas,” was the reply. Sreenivasan curtly told the American that if the marines did not have visas they do not go to India. Period.

Amber G. wrote: Matrimc ji: Why not address those questions to Ms Harf?