This confirms my theory that there are many others possibly underpaying domestic workers. The US needed one case to vigorously pursue in order to set an example. Khobargade was an easy choice because her nanny had left and the advocacy group Safe Horizon was helping her. The big question is why India didn’t recall Khobargade several months ago. That’s why I called her a pawn caught between the US and India.
I think the US’ point has been made. Domestic contracts are probably being updated to conform to US law. No one wants to get charged like Khobargade.
There has been admission by retired IFS officers that senior IFS officials in the US and in India have not handled the case well, and that the lapses would need to be looked into. The Indian ambassador to the US until Nov 2013 was retired IFS officer and former foreign secretary (head of the IFS), Nirupama Rao. Currently India has an acting (stop gap) ambassador in the US
As an aside, the next ambassador to the US will be Jaishankar who retired recently from the IFS. Jaishankar, on merit, was the top choice to take the top job of Foreign Secretary, but in an election year the Govt did not want problems and went by seniority to select Sujata Singh who had threatened to resign if a junior was made the head of the IFS. Jaishankar is the son of K Subrahmanyam, the grand dad of India defense strategy.
There are some who ask why the US has not gone after other diplomats and suggested that Khobragade was somehow targeted. This question and suggestion fails to take into account what a reasonable public prosecutor has to do - he/she will take up cases that have a reasonable chance of being upheld in court - and for that he/she needs witnesses.
I wonder why other maids have not complained. Perhaps the foisting of cases in India against Sangeeta Richard was Indian Govt’s way of sending a message to them. Sangeeta cannot go to India again -she will be arrested on arrival.
Thankfully US Govt quietly arranged for her husband and children to be flown to the US before arresting Khobragade. Her husband is Witness # 2 in the US case against Khobragade. Indian Govt is “upset” that US Govt did not inform it about the arrangements it had made to have the husband and children flown to the US.
There are a few, unfortunately merely a few, sane and compassionate voices of people of Indian origin on this case, that of Meghnad Desai, Siddharth Varadarajan, Narayan Lakshman (who wrote in the Indian newspaper The Hindu) and Mihir Sharma in the link below:
It is interesting that the Delhi High Court has refused to entertain Philip Richard’s complaint against Khobragade on the grounds that it has no jurisdiction over acts committed on foreign soil, but a lower court in Delhi has found it convenient to issue an arrest warrant against the maid Sangeeta Richard on charges of “extortion, blackmail, deceit, …” when Sangeeta made an offer of settlement on foreign (US) soil.
The irony is that Khobragade was treated with much more deference in her arrest than the vast majority of Americans would be, and you’re very upset that she wasn’t treated even better.
Here is a video link to a NDTV - a top Indian TV channels - discussion on the issue that was broadcast a few hours ago.
The video runs for about 52 minutes. Of special interest are the following segments:
(a) 70 second segment from about 19 minutes 50 seconds to about 21 minutes
(b) 60 second segment from about 39:45 to 40:45
In (a) above, Devayani Khobargade’s dad waves a piece of paper that he says in an extract from the diary/journal of Sangeeta Richard. When asked how he got it, he says “She left … she wrote it …” and proceeds to read from it in Hindi. Per his reading (and a copy of the extract is also available on the Internet) of the extract, Sangeeta has written that the Manhattan apartment has 4 bedrooms, she has one, does not feel treated like a servant and has plenty of spare time. It also says they had stayed at Beckman Hotel for a couple of weeks before moving into the apartment in Nov/Dec 2012.
In (b) above, Devayani Khobargade’s dad is asked about the date of the extract. He claims it was written just before Sangeeta left her job and a good six months after she arrived in NYC.
I believe the video link above would be of interest to US prosecution for the reasons given below. I intend to bring it to the attention of the US attorney’s office soon.
The link in (a) is evidence that Devayani Khobargade took possession of Sangeeta Richard’s diary after Sangeeta left and either sent it to her powerful dad in India or sent a scanned copy of a convenient extract to him for him to display to the world in a damning violation of Sangeeta’s right to privacy. The diary itself would be important evidence and we now know who has possession.
Devayani Khobargade’s dad is lying when he claims that the extract was written a good six months after Sangeeta Richard’s arrival in NYC. The contents of the extract suggest that it was written by someone who had just moved into an apartment after staying in a hotel. That the date on the extract has not been shown suggests that it has been blanked out to make the claim that it was written toward the end of Sangeeta’s stay in the apartment.
That the journal/diary exists suggests that Sangeeta would have made other entries in it later - these other entries will constitute key evidence of how she was mistreated by her employer.
the actual irony is your talk of irony knowing how the US would have acted if it were say china or russia’s consul general or were one of its own in other countries.
The Bombay rally protection appears to have been sought to test Indian Govt, not motivated by fright.
Jaishankar is the best in the IFS for the job - it is also compensation for him for not being made the head of the IFS. However I would be curious to see what magic wand he has - am an atheist and believe in no messiahs.
What does India want?
An apology that reflects feudal moorings - a fig leaf for honor that Pakistan is more famous for.
Dropping of all charges against Khobragade and an honorable return to India.
What does India have to offer in exchange?
Restitution of all privileges to US personnel that it provided until a few days ago?
Several posters have pointed out the salary on the form didn’t compute out correctly for a $40 an hour week. This could be why. It should be very easy to prove she entered her own salary instead of a salary for the maid/nanny.
Anyway, thats the defense’s claim so far. I’d expect there will be more reported on this claim.
Documentation supporting Khobragade’s temporary UN appointment last August should be available at the UN and in India. If there’s no documentation then her situation remains unchanged.
Repercussions for the arrest continue in India. I guess that’s fair. There’s no reason US consular officers should get special immunity either. Unless that courtesy is extend to consular officers in the US.
Really, pull the other one. First Khobragade was being paid $4,100 a month and didn’t pay the promised salary because she couldn’t afford it, and now she was making $4,500 a month and was trying to say she could afford a maid? Please.
The cause of the tensions is that there is substantial evidence that an Indian official was violating US law, and the Indian government believes that their consular officials aren’t subject either US law or the Vienna Convention.
If US officials in India are skirting the law in similar ways, well, they shouldn’t be doing that, and they should be subject to appropriate penalties. But I remain wary of the approach advocated in this thread by at least one poster that India may simply trump up charges against US officials.
There aren’t any arrests in India that could be additional.
It’s not like the US is infiltrating the households of Indian consular officials and looking for trouble. So additional arrests here are unlikely. But if a servant comes to US police and says they have been be seriously mistreated, and perhaps held against their will, we should continue to investigate, and act accordingly.
Re my earlier prediction that the US would cave, the New York Times is today reporting, at the end of this story, that we are allowing Ms. Khobragade to skip bail and leave the country without trial, should she so decide:
Except Khobragade has family in the US. She doesn’t want to skip bail.
Lets say the US does recognize her immunity. They go through the normal process of asking India to recall her. Thats the standard procedure followed for diplomats that get charged with a crime. Is Khobragade considered a fugitive? Or are charges dropped? Could she visit the US without risking arrest?