India's demand for dropping of all charges against its former Deputy Consular General in New York Devyani Khobragade will come for discussion during the proposed Indo-US dialogue to resolve the issues arising out of her arrest in the US, the government said on Thursday.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today met his United States counterpart John Kerry in Montreux for the first time after a row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat as they committed to move forward bilateral ties and return to close partnerships on strategic issues.
In a new twist, it has now emerged that senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade enjoyed full diplomatic immunity including from personal arrest and detention on December 12 when she was taken into custody by the United States authorities in a visa fraud case.
The United States o Friday said senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who returned to New Delhi, no longer enjoys immunity and she and Indian government were told that an arrest warrant might be issued against her.
The Indian agencies are trying to get in touch with the family of Sangeet Richard, the nanny who filed a complaint against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested and later released last week in connection with an allegedly 'fradulent' visa application for her housekeeper and babysitter .
A group of community leaders met Dr Devyani Khobragade on Monday at the Indian consulate in New York and offered the support of the people.
The State Department says it informed the Indian embassy in Washington, DC in Deptember about the troubles that awaited diplomat Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested on the charges of alleged fraud in New York on December 12. A media statement issued by M Sridharan, the Counsellor (Press, Information and Culture), at the embassy clarifies the sequence of events.
'If at all,' says Suhasini Haidar, Foreign Affairs Editor, CNN-IBN, 'Devyani Khobragade is to avoid facing a full trial, the process of that negotiation must start immediately, for which the current acrimonious atmosphere must be improved. It is no more than the US was willing to do for Raymond Davis; the Italian government for its sailors; and India for Captain Sunil James and Vijayan in Togo. Devyani Khobragade is not accused of charges anywhere as serious they were, and whether Preet Bharara's office recognises it or not, she is a diplomat who represents a proud country that has taken the insult to her as a personal insult to the country.'
Reflecting anger in the government, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon on Tuesday termed as "despicable" and "barbaric" the treatment meted out to India's Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade in New York.
The American media, which demanded action by the Obama administration when a junior consular staff was detained in Lahore for killing two men, has attacked the Indian government for siding with its diplomat after her arrest and ill-treatment.
"The incident involving India's deputy consul general was outrageous, deplorable and inexcusable. Period. Full stop."
Upset over the Devyani Khobragade episode, India on Wednesday raised with the United States its concerns over "trafficking" visas issued to family members of Sangita Richard, the absconding maid of the Indian diplomat whose arrest had triggered a row between the two countries.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, whose arrest soured India-US relations, was on Friday re-indicted on visa fraud charges, a couple of days after a US court dismissed an earlier indictment.
'The outcome of this trial will not directly impact Ms Richard, but we are hopeful that justice will be served,' says a spokesperson for Safe Horizon, the organisation taking care of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's former domestic help.
India on Friday spoke in conciliatory language on the issue of its senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade case, saying that it was important to "preserve" the "valuable" bilateral relationship even as the United States ruled out the demand for dropping of the charges against her.
In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the United States to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, a move which may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by them as a protest to the treatment meted out to India's deputy consul general in New York.
'Only my friends know how I live here in Manhattan, saving every penny... Life in New York has not been not easy for me,' Devyani Khobragade told friends and colleagues.
India should fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the State Department insists.
Protestors outside the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, California, tell Rediff.com's Ritu Jha that they are outraged because nobody is speaking for the rights of Sangeeta Richard, the former domestic help of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade
A day after India stepped up security for the United States embassy and other American institutions, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Fridaysaid the decision was not based on "reciprocity but on threat perception".
Devyani Khobragade's maid Sangeeta Richard, in her first public statement, has thanked those who supported her in fight for justice.
Pakistan on Monday sided with India on the row over the treatment meted out to senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the United States and said such treatment should not be meted to any official of another country.
The Devyani Khobragade row, India-Pakistan bickering over Afghanistan and a nightclub act by two diplomats were some of the issues discussed at one of the sessions at Jaipur Lit Fest, reports Sanchari Bhattacharya.
The United States has hoped that the major diplomatic row over the arrest of the Indian Deputy Consul General in New York will not affect bilateral ties with India. In a major diplomatic embarrassment to India, 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody on Thursday as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty.
The Shiv Sena on Monday slammed diplomat Devyani Khobragade's father Uttam Khobragade, a former Indian Administrative Service officer, for calling Marathi media casteist after being confronted with a query about her flat in the controversial Adarsh housing society.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday described the indictment of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the United States as a "defeat" for India, saying that the criminal case against her would remain in America.
Even as efforts are underway for resolution of the row involving Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, her father on Tuesday led a protest march outside the American consulate in Mumbai, terming the United States administration's action against her as "illegal".
India and the US are in "conversations" to resolve the standoff over diplomat Devyani Khobragade, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Saturday said as he described the US as a valuable partner and asked it to "understand the value" of the partnership.
The National Domestic Workers Alliance and the United Workers Congress have called for an International Day of Action to support Sangeeta Richard, who had been hired by Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade as a domestic help and babysitter.
The United States has said that it was time to get past the recent tensions with India and both the countries should move on.
India on Monday made it clear to the United States that it cannot be "business as usual" between the two sides till the Devyani Khobragade issue is resolved.
'A senior US diplomat last week asked me when things will go back to normal. I had to tell her that if normalcy meant getting back these perks, it is not going to happen for a very long time, if ever at all,' says Mohan Guruswamy. 'For the Indian public now is outraged that US diplomats have enjoyed all these winking at the rulebook.'
Indian-American Richard Rahul Verma has been sworn in as the United States ambassador to India by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Verma, 46, is the first Indian-American to be the US ambassador to India and is expected to be sworn in shortly.
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade on Friday asserted that the charges against her in a US court are "false and baseless" and the stand taken by her and the Indian government in the case will be "vindicated".
More than 20 days after it was submitted by the United Nations, the United States continues to review the visa application of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, which would give her full diplomatic immunity.
Angered by the treatment meted out to Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday rescinded its invitation to the US Consulate in Mumbai to attend Narendra Modi's rally in the city on Sunday.
India on Tuesday said it has taken "very seriously" the treatment meted out to its Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade by the United States authorities and that it has "put in motion" the process to deal with the issue in an "effective way".
Forty-eight-year-old Verma, who played a quiet but key role in deepening Indo-US ties, will quit before the president-elect assumes charge as his team said the envoys, who are political appointees, will not be given any "grace period" beyond Trump's inauguration day.
India and the United States have affirmed their shared commitment to continue their work on a broad range of bilateral issues and move forward post the Devyani episode.
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