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[W.G.Ewald]

The United Nations has approved a request from India to accredit a New York-based diplomat after her arrest by U.S. authorities on criminal charges including visa fraud, a U.N. official said on Monday.

Indian media said the request to transfer Devyani Khobragade, who was deputy consul-general in New York, to the United Nations was aimed at ending the stand-off with the United States in the hopes that her new diplomatic status could allow New Delhi to bring her home without the prosecution proceeding.

...

One possible scenario to solve the crisis would be that she receives full diplomatic immunity in her U.N. post if the State Department approves her transfer. The U.S. government would then ask for her immunity to be removed so she can face prosecution. Assuming India refused, the State Department could then take steps to have her removed from the country.

Well played, India. Khobragade has been into the victim of the case by your hysterical posturing. Upper class Indians can continue to exploit the little people.

A comment:

We (the U.S.) have accused the diplomat of breaking the law. She is a suspect, and is still considered innocent until she has her day in court. Yes, she was booked and strip searched, but she and her family are out walking the streets again as safe as ever before. On the other hand the Indian State Department has publicly stated that the housemaid is lying and trying to blackmail and/or get revenge against the diplomat. They want her returned to India, and have apparently made threats against her family serious enough that the U.S. government feels it is necessary to bring the family to the U.S. for protection. What kind of trial would the housemaid get if she returned to India? It sounds like she has already been tried and condemned. What if we treated the diplomat the same way, following the Indian government's example against one of their own citizens and her family? This woman is already suspected of committing crimes in the U.S. while sheltered by partial immunity, is it really a good idea to now allow her to have FULL diplomatic immunity? She obviously doesn't think she did anything wrong, feels no remorse, what will she do if she knows the law can't touch her? Forget the backdoor games India is trying to pull, deny her full UN immunity and let her prove her case in court.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Accused Indian Diplomat Needs US OK for UN Job - ABC News

Court documents claim Indian diplomat's housekeeper kept in 'slavery-like' conditions | Fox News

She is so adorable, she must be innocent

 

[pmaitra]

Court documents claim Indian diplomat's housekeeper kept in 'slavery-like' conditions | Fox News

Faux rhetoric (pun intended). Perhaps the maid could have stayed back in India and continued her forgettable life in squalor. No one coerced her into coming to the US as a maid. The diplomat made a promise in India, and she kept hers. As per US law she is wrong, but as per Indian law, she isn't. The maid just used the law and got the State Department to participate in an extortion, blackmail, and immigration scam.

She is so adorable, she must be innocent

She is not innocent. She is a habitual liar. The maid isn't innocent either.

 

[bose]

US double standards!! to put it in simple words... I am not happy the way the present Indian government has handled the situation...

US has become so concerned about the ill treatment of citizens from other countries... will USA ready to pay and illegally ship out other Indians out of India who are also under perceived threat ???


If I would have my way in such situation I would have picked up one of the American diplomats up from the streets of Delhi or Mumbai or Kolkata and hand cuff, [edited] and then negotiate for a resolution...

First the tit for tat MUST come then negotiation...

The present government is too sissy and week and must go for good of the country...

 

[thakur_ritesh]

Diplomacy isn't about upmanship nor does it happen in isolation. This isn't any victory, of course it might be portrayed so in India for political point scoring, though just how stupid it would be, also keep a note of how quickly this news will now fade away from the headlines because something more breath taking or heart wrenching would have happened to catch the imagination of this country. Anyway, the deal done should surely be to allow an escape door for the lady in question, the way it was done. Could this have happened without an American consent, absolutely no!

At the end of the day India and the US have to work together, there are common shared interests to carry forward, and unlikely to be compromised by the happening of such events.

I am more keen on the question I raised the last time. What is it that the GoI has done to make sure such an incident never repeats from happening in future? Are there any consultations in place, or do we even intend to take it up with the Americans? Or is it that the honour of this country is only at stake when something of the sort happens with an IFS officer whose father was an influential IAS officer, or some politician, or some film star, and that such things will only be handled on a case by case basis depending on who the victim is, and the extent of the influence that person exerts?

About the lady in question, what is the government to do now that she has been exposed on how she got in to the IFS and the house she got allocated in the Aadarsh housing society? Is any action planned?

@W.G.Ewald I'll like to understand one thing here, if tomorrow one of your diplomat gets handcuffed, thrown in the jail with hardened criminals for whatever reason sighted, what would be your reaction to it. Would you be defensive of the diplomat or would you accept the stance of the government which did it. What was your stand on the Raymond Davis episode that happened in Pakistan?

 

[pmaitra]

At the end of the day India and the US have to work together, there are common shared interests to carry forward, and unlikely to be compromised by the happening of such events.

There are common interests, and very uncommon and conflicting standards. The US needs to demonstrate it is sincere, instead of pontificating to the rest of the world. The way the US has handled this scenario, even Iran looks like an angel.

I am more keen on the question I raised the last time. What is it that the GoI has done to make sure such an incident never repeats from happening in future? Are there any consultations in place, or do we even intend to take it up with the Americans? Or is it that the honour of this country is only at stake when something of the sort happens with an IFS officer whose father was an influential IAS officer, or some politician, or some film star, and that such things will only be handled on a case by case basis depending on who the victim is, and the extent of the influence that person exerts?

Has the US government made sure that this so called "equality of law" is applied everywhere? If this minimum wage or underpayment issue were indeed so sacrosanct, then thousands of professors and their universities, some of them state funded, would end up getting charged, for paying students for 20 hours while they slog away for 70 hours a week. If that happens, the US higher education would collapse (Would you not agree Sir? @W.G.Ewald). All this righteous talk is meant for the plebs to swallow. Perhaps their more-patriotic-than-the-king "rockstar" attorney can spare us his codswallop.

 

[tarunraju]

Well played, India. Khobragade has been into the victim of the case by your hysterical posturing. Upper class Indians can continue to exploit the little people.

Yeah because the "exploited people" are entitled to US visa even if they don't meet eligibility, and the US taxpayer pays for their travel to the US.

Maybe extend the same courtesy to your neighbors to the south.

 

[thakur_ritesh]

@pmaitra

No one forced us into working out an amicable deal with the US here, it was our free will to do it, and we did it. At the time of working this out, was the GoI even contemplating of trying to work out any such parity? The US has been let off by us, forget the stuff they do in the US, there is enough nonsense they do here in India, what was the reaction of the government? Is this government even willing to anything on that front or are they more than happy that they have done their point scoring and beyond wont make a squeak on the issue.

People will treat us the way we want them to, likewise the countries will treat us the way we allow them to. If we have a weak government, don't expect other to lay down a bed of roses for us.

 

[sydsnyper]

@W.G.Ewald - I could not verify the source, it was brought up in one of Arnab Goswami's famous rant, that the maid had been missing from the diplomat's house since June and the Indian consulate had posted complaints to the cops and the US immigration. Out of the blue she turns up at an immigration lawyer.

The house maid's father works for the US consulate in Delhi, which adds an angle to the case.

Secondly, the original case against the diplomat was for not paying the maid enough, that does not deem a public arrest by the police and the US marshalls. It is later, probably in the media circles, that the nature of the crime turned out to be that of slavery.

Thirdly, the diplomat's pay is of the same grade as medium skill workers in the US, between $4K to $5K. Now, with this low a salary in the US, she would of course not be able to pay her maid a very high salary. The maid had the option of going to the US consulate and complain about low wages.

 

[ninja85]

Well played, India. Khobragade has been into the victim of the case by your hysterical posturing. Upper class Indians can continue to exploit the little people.

A comment:

is she going to be kicked out from US after all this over?