Khobragade’s arrest sparks a furious reaction against American diplomats and their families.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: In what is turning out to be a diplomatic crisis that few would have imagined possible a week ago, relations between the United States and India took a nosedive over the arrest of the Indian Deputy Consul General of India in New York, Devyani Khobragade, with India taking action today aimed at rebuking and humiliating America.
In actions that may have far reaching consequences for years or decades to come, and perhaps has already damaged relations to an irreversible degree – unless America does an embarrassing turnaround, admits its mistake over the arrest of Khobragade, fires a couple of officials who were behind it, and damages its credibility in front of the rest of the world – India has asked for several measures of American diplomatic personnel in India, including asking US diplomats and their families in consulates all over the country to surrender their identity cards.
The move to surrender the identity cards is apparently to check who is “family†and who is not – apart from the huge diplomatic slap which it is also meant to be – and given a call by the BJP’s Yashwant Sinha, who asked for gay partners of American diplomats to be prosecuted, as per the new ruling by the Supreme Court in India which criminalizes homosexuality, may have dire consequences for many American diplomats. India also has decided to withdraw special privileges to all American diplomatic personnel and their families by including, withdrawing airport passes for them.
A move which may, however, signify much more diplomatically and is a pointed reminder of what is at stake here for Americas which is on the curve to growth after years of stagnation, is India’s decision to lift barricades outside the US embassy, in protest to the arrest of Khobragade. The obvious security implications apart for the US personnel stationed in the embassy, who may now have to install private security of their own to bolster their safeguards, the move is also indicative of perhaps India’s strong signal that future ties in areas like defense and military may be compromised.
India has also decided to go after the US where it really hurts them: financially.
The State Department was one section of the government which was not affected by the standoff on Capitol Hill, and the sequestration, as they maintained that they are able to sustain themselves financially because of the money collected from visa fees from their embassies and consulates abroad.
However, if India were to implement a new law the State Department would find itself in deep financial doldrums: India has demanded the US to provide salary details of all Indian staff employed in US consulates, including those working as domestic help at the homes of US diplomats in India. The move goes further, and has also asked the US to provide details of the salaries teachers make at schools the US run in India, including international schools.
The move stems from the arrest of Khobragade who allegedly paid her maid less than the minimum wage of $9.75 as mandated by the laws in New York City. India is now giving America a taste of its own medicine. Since all US consulates and embassies are deemed as American territory, India wants the US to pay everybody working there to get minimum wages as per American law. India has also asked for salary details of workers employed by these diplomats and their families at homes in India.
Indian diplomatic personnel like Khobragade may have one maid when she comes here, but even the lowest tier of American diplomatic personnel in India have half a dozen maids and servants to help them with their daily chores in India. India is demanding that the US pay wages as per their laws to those employees. The move would means that if there are six workers at a American diplomat’s household – including gardeners, cooks, babysitters, house cleaners, drivers – their salary itself might be around $25,000 per month. At present those personnel combined might be making less than Rs. 100,000, or around $1,500, per month
And even as these stern measures are being taken by India to, in very plain language, teach America a lesson they will not forget, and the US continues to keep mum on the issue – they are in a limbo as it is with Khobragade’s date in court set only in mid-January – there are more worrying signs that the US-India bonhomie has come to an end.
Yesterday, news reports came that the Speaker of the Lok Sabha Meira Kumar and the national Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon refused to meet a delegation of US House of Representatives visiting India, in protest against the Khobragade arrest.
News now comes that even the two Prime Ministerial candidates in the waiting, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi, have also snubbed the US delegation. Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde also refused to meet the delegation.
The Khobragade arrest may be the fodder than Gandhi needs to bolster his image in front of the country and raise his visibility nationally, but for Modi, this is the ammunition he needs to firm his distrust of America, the nation which has publicly humiliated him the most.
(Sujeet Rajan is the Editor-in-Chief of The American Bazaar.)
To contact the author, email to sujeetrajan@americanbazaaronline.com