Devyani Khobragade arrest: Has India's reaction not been strong enough?

In retaliation for the treatment meted out to its diplomat in New York, the Indian government had asked US diplomats to return their identity cards, demanded the removal of barricades and ministers refused to meet a US Congress panel. But despite all this has India’s reaction to the incident been too mild? Speaking on the panel of the CNN-IBN show India at 9, Foreign Affairs Editor at the Hindustan Times, Pramit Pal Chaudhury said that India’s reaction to the incident hasn’t been strong enough. “The nature of Devyani’s arrest was not correct. Also the road blocks in front of the US consulate were anyway not legal,” he said. “India could have done the same thing to a US diplomat. This is a softer approach,” Chaudhury  said. Former diplomat KC Singh agreed with Chaudhury and said the treatment of the Indian diplomat was completely unwarranted. “It has to be a grave crime to have meted out such treatment. More so since the US state department is in the know that Indian domestic helps are paid on the India pay scale,” he said. [caption id=“attachment_1292427” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Devyani Khobragade was arrested for visa fraud. PTI[/caption] The panelists were of the opinion that India has to take a stronger stand with the US and resolve the issue of diplomats hiring domestic helps which has been a problem for some time now. “It’s time we negotiated this issue of wages. We have to tell them we will pay Indian wages or else we will clamp down US diplomats here,” former Indian diplomat, G Parthasarathy, said. Singh agree and said that if the US “is extending US domestic laws to Indian diplomats, India should do the same”. While the US has charged the Indian diplomat with a visa fraud, her father Uttam Khobragade has vehemently denies it. “The visa application was filed by the domestic help and not by my daughter. My daughter only helped her with it on her computer. And according to laws it is the person who signs the document is guilty,” Khobragade said. Khobragade, himself a former IAS officer, said the fact that his daughter was paying her domestic help on an Indian pay scale was known by the US and it was what diplomats had been doing for years. Parthasarathy confirmed this and said it was something that had been done for years. “When I was in the US I paid my house help according to Indian pay scales. This is just a tamasha by human rights walas. The US state department is aware that they are paid according to Indian pay scales,” Parthasarthy said. The former diplomat was of the opinion that if a envoy can be cavity searched in the US, despite her diplomatic unity, then wives of American diplomats who have been working in schools in India should be charged for not paying taxes here. BJP leader Sheshadri Chari questioned on how much the US pays the people who work in the consulate in India. “Does the US consulate pay their employees in dollars? Does the watchman or the driver get more money than the India pay scale,” he asked.