US never warned India about Devyani Khobragade's arrest

The United States had claimed that the Indian embassy in Washington had been alerted in writing over two months before Devyani Khobragade’s arrest in New York on 12 December, 2013.

This is not true. Till date, the US State Department has sent just one written communication to the Indian embassy in Washington in this context. It was a two-page letter written on 4 September, 2013 by Assistant Chief of Protocol Gladys Boluda to Nirupama Rao, then Indian ambassador in the US.

This letter is being reproduced for the first time here .

Nowhere in this letter has the State Department alerted the Indian embassy about the impending action against Khobragade.

US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai-Biswal had told The Times of India  in an interview less than a week after Khobragade’s arrest that the State Department had alerted — in writing — the Indian embassy as early as September 2013 that there were allegations against the diplomat concerning underpayment of minimum wages and non-compliance, and that action could be imminent under US laws.

The State Department’s letter makes two broad points:

(i) a voluntary meeting between Khobragade and representatives from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security so that she is able to respond to the allegations made by her maid Sangeeta Richard; and

(ii) intimation of a two-week deadline for the Indian embassy in Washington to submit its findings to the State Department and necessary documentation in this context.

Again, nowhere did the State Department in this written communication alert the Indian embassy about the imminent arrest of Khobragade.

The State Department’s letter gives elaborate details on Sangeeta Richard’s allegations against her employer Khobragade and asks the Indian embassy to provide a copy of wages paid to Richard and records of daily and weekly hours worked by her.

There is only one paragraph where the letter talks in general terms about what the US Secretary of State is required to do in case of flouting of certain types of visas.

Here is the relevant para:

“The Department would also like to take this opportunity to remind the Embassy that US law requires the Secretary of State to ‘suspend for such period as the Secretary determines necessary, the issuance of A-3 visas or G-5 visas to applicants seeking to work for officials of a diplomatic mission or international organization, if the Secretary determines that there is credible evidence that one or more employees of such mission or international organization have abused or exploited one or more non-immigrants holding an A-3 or G-5 visa, and that the diplomatic mission or international organization tolerated such actions.’ “

Sangeeta Richard held A-3 visa, while Khobragade held A-1 visa. Again, there was no alert from the Americans to the Indians about the stern and unprecedented action that the Americans eventually took against Khobragade ten weeks later.

The writer is a Firstpost columnist who tweets @Kishkindha.