Past experience to determine the way forward with US: India

New Delhi: The US may be hoping that the Khobragade episode will come to a “closure” with the senior Indian diplomat’s departure for home, but India on Monday indicated a different viewpoint, saying it will move forward in the relationship based on “its experience” in the past. [caption id=“attachment_1337693” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade. PTI[/caption] India has already made it clear that it will continue to press for dropping of visa fraud charges against senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested on 12 December in New York and subsequently indicted by a jury in the case. Immediately after the indictment, Khobragade was asked to leave by the US, which also granted her full diplomatic immunity. “We will take each day as it comes because it is important to look back and forward. The relationship between India and the US is not a one-issue relationship. We have a series of issues that we are engaged. We will take this matter after carefully examining what has been our experience in the past and we will move forward on this broad relationship that we have,” Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said in New Delhi. At a briefing in Washington after the departure of Khobragade, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said, “This has clearly been a challenging time in the US-India relationship. We expect and hope that this will now come to closure and the Indians will now take significant steps with us to improve our relationship and return it to a more constructive place.” Meanwhile, drawing lessons from the Khobragade episode, MEA has also decided to “vigorously” pursue its proposal with finance ministry to make “significant” changes in the status of domestic assistants like maids helping Indian diplomats in the US and the Europe. Noting that the proposal was in “gestation” from more than an year with finance ministry, the Spokesperson said the ministry hopes to pursue vigorously the proposal, which has legal, financial and visa status implications. PTI