Why is the worker in Devyani Khobragade case being unfairly villainised?

Editor’s note: This comment was made by a reader, Mathew Brinkley on the article, ‘The US has gone overboard against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade’ published earlier today. In the comment, Brinkley says that he finds it deplorable that the worker in question has been cast as a criminal because of demanding the wages due to her. It is Firstpost policy to edit for grammar and spelling, but this comment has been left as is. 

As an American citizen I find it deplorable that the worker, Mrs Richard, has been cast as a criminal for merely demanding the wages due her by US law. Whatever formal or informal rules of employment exist in India, simply do not apply here in the United States. One suspects Mrs Richard is a victim of India’s caste system.

One of the most fundamental, deeply-cherished beliefs in the United States is that *all* people are created equal. I have an income in the top 20% of all Americans, and an intelligence in the top 0.01%. Not because I am a “better”, but mostly because I am lucky. While I have worked hard in life to achieve my station, others who worked equally hard but lacked the same blessings I was born with would not have been so generously rewarded.

I personally do not have a “nanny” or any household servant. I cook my own dinner, clean my own house, mow my own yard, and fix my own toilet when it breaks, and honestly am proud to do so. If I decided to hire a person to take over those duties from me, they would not be treated as a slave, but rather as a fellow human being whose labor makes my own life easier.

I have read various posts on Indian newspapers about the housekeeper, how she is apparently acting illegally for simply demanding the salary that my country requires for the work she has performed. May I suggest that Mrs. Khobragade could have easily avoided the entire problem by being willing to cook her own dinner and clean her own toilet like most other Americans, rather than demand someone else do the work for her at a substandard price?