Reciprocity to determine treatment of diplomats
The India-US relations entered uncharted territory on Tuesday with New Delhi unleashing a series of retaliatory measures against the “barbaric” treatment meted out to its Deputy Consul General in New York, Devyani Khobragade, by the American law enforcing agencies.
Faced with the repeated humiliation of Indian leaders, diplomats, actors and public personalities by the US authorities, the Indian Government has paid Uncle Sam in the same coin. This is bound to shock the Obama administration.
Propelled by demand from political quarters and public at large, in a tit-for-tat move, the Government removed traffic barricades in front of the US Embassy in New Delhi and also asked the US to return all ID cards issued to their consular officers posted in the India.
Sources said enforcing strict “reciprocity”, India may scale down the level of immunity granted to the US diplomats if the US persisted that Devyani did not enjoy diplomatic immunity and hence she was treated like a common criminal.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Devyani Khobragade, was working as India’s Deputy Consul General in New York. She was detained from near the school of her children and later handcuffed in full public view. Khobragade was strip-searched and confined with drug addicts after her detention in an alleged visa fraud case. She was also subjected to DNA swabbing before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
Adding to the agony of the Americans, New Delhi has decided to withdraw airport passes for all US diplomatic staff and has also sought salary details of all Indians employed in US consulates. All import clearances for the US embassy, including liquor, has also been stopped.
But the most stirring of the anti-US steps was freeing the Nyaya Marg in Chanakyapuri for uninterrupted driving by the Indians, who were forced to act as “second-class citizens” by gun-wielding US security men. Many a time, the road was completely made out of bound for the common man. As the Delhi police pressed in JCB to dismantle the blockades, the American pride and arrogance lay shattered on the streets of Delhi.
It is obvious that such steps could not have been knee-jerk reactions, but must have been contemplated for long because massive resentment was brewing in the country over the way Americans have been treating Indian dignitaries.
The US is not used to deal with such rap on the knuckles, and now it is to be seen how the Americans respond to such unprecedented humiliation heaped on them by the Indian government, which had developed a habit to look the other way even when its bigwigs were frisked and detained routinely at the airport by the American security officials.
Few would have expected such strong response from the Manmohan Singh Government, which has often been accused of playing second fiddle to the Americans. In the slog over, the PM has tried to offset criticism of pursuing a weak-kneed foreign policy, and in the process pitted India against World’s superpower in a way few countries in the world have dared to do.
Before unveiling the retaliatory measures, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh had summoned US Ambassador Nancy Powell and issued a demarche in this regard.
Significantly, the Association of Indian Foreign Service Officers, under the presidentship of the Foreign Secretary, was meeting to discuss the issue.
Echoing the sentiments of millions of Indians and anger in the government, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon termed as “despicable” and “barbaric” the treatment meted out to Devyani.
Asserting that the action by the US authorities was “completely unacceptable”, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said India has conveyed deep distress and sense of disquiet to the American Government and whatever needs to be done was being done.
“We have put in motion what we believe would be effective way of addressing the issue but also (put) in motion such steps that need to be taken to protect her dignity,” he told reporters here.
“We have expressed our deep distress and sense of disquiet, that has been very very strongly felt, in strongest words possible. We have communicated the sense that we feel (to the US),” he said.
“We feel both in terms of diplomatic responsibilities of relationship between friendly countries, and in terms of human element that’s involved,” Khurshid said.
The External Affairs Minister said there were some “larger issues” involved and the government will deal with them at a later stage.
On Monday night, the US state department claimed that that standard procedure was followed while arresting Devyani. “Well, I’d make a couple points. The State Department’s Diplomatic Security followed standard procedures during the arrest. After her arrest, she was passed on to the US Marshals for intake and processing. So for any additional questions on her treatment, obviously, this would be the US Marshals and not us. I would refer you there,” said US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Maries Harf in Washington DC.