India vs US

[American Patriot]

Problems developing suddenly. I find this difficult to understand - since India does all our outsourcing..... but oh well.

17 December 2013 Last updated at 12:48 ET Devyani Khobragade: India-US diplomat row escalates

Security barricades were removed from outside the US embassy in Delhi
Continue reading the main story Related Stories

• Indian diplomat in US 'visa fraud'

India has ordered a series of reprisals against the United States amid a worsening row over the arrest of one of its diplomats in New York.
Security barricades around the US embassy in Delhi have been removed and a visiting US delegation was snubbed.
The diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, was handcuffed upon arrest last week and strip-searched, Indian reports say.
She denies visa fraud and making false statements over allegations that she underpaid her Indian maid.
The maid had complained the diplomat was paying her less than the minimum stipulated under US visa requirements.
Continue reading the main story What is diplomatic immunity?

• A form of legal immunity that ensures diplomats are exempt from prosecution under the host country's laws
• Agreed as international law in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961)
• Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) a consul is afforded a variation of diplomatic immunity called consular immunity
• It guarantees immunity from the host country's laws only with respect to acts related to consular duties

US officials say standard procedures were followed during the arrest of Ms Khobragade, who appeared in court on Friday and was freed on bail.
Ms Khobragade will challenge her arrest on grounds of diplomatic immunity, her lawyer said.
The US state department said that Ms Khobragade does not have full diplomatic immunity.
It said under the UN's Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, she is immune from arrest only for crimes committed in connection with her work.
'A snub' India's government has said it is "shocked and appalled" at the manner in which Ms Khobragade, its deputy consul general in New York, was "humiliated" in the US.
On Tuesday, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde called her treatment unacceptable. He cancelled his meeting with the senior US Congressional delegation and his office said he was busy in parliament, but media reports in India described it as a "snub" to the US.
Continue reading the main story “Start Quote

As a father I feel hurt, our entire family is traumatised”

Uttam Khobragade Diplomat's father
The governing Congress party Vice-President, Rahul Gandhi, and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi also refused to meet the delegations.
"Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA," Mr Modi tweeted.
On Monday, the Speaker of India's parliament, Meira Kumar, and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon had also refused to meet the Congressional officials.
Mr Menon said Ms Khobragade's treatment was "despicable and barbaric".
Reports in India said American diplomats and their families in India will have airport passes withdrawn and duty free arrangements suspended.
One official said US diplomats' gay partners may also be liable to arrest for breaching Indian laws against homosexuality.
Ms Khobragade's father, Uttam, told local media the treatment of his daughter was "absolutely obnoxious".
"As a father I feel hurt, our entire family is traumatised."
Anger has been rising in India against the alleged ill-treatment of the diplomat
Ms Khobragade, 39, was arrested last Thursday in New York and later freed on a $250,000 (£153,000) bond after pleading not guilty to the charges. Some reports in India said she was arrested while dropping her daughter at school and was handcuffed in public.
Latest media reports said she had been "subjected to a humiliating strip search and kept in a cell with drug addicts".
Law enforcement authorities in New York say Ms Khobragade "allegedly caused a materially false and fraudulent document to be presented, and materially false and fraudulent statements to be made, to the US Department of State in support of a visa application for an Indian national employed as a babysitter and housekeeper at her home in New York".
State department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters at a news conference on Monday: "Diplomatic security, which is under the state department purview, followed standard procedures during her arrest."
If found guilty, Ms Khobragade faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making false statements.

[American Patriot]

India removes barriers to U.S. embassy as anger grows over diplomat's arrest

By Shyamantha Asokan and Frank Jack Daniel

NEW DELHI Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:50pm GMT


(Reuters) - Indian authorities removed concrete security barriers in front of the U.S. embassy in New Delhi on Tuesday in apparent retaliation for the arrest and allegedly heavy-handed treatment of an Indian diplomat in New York.

New Delhi police used tow trucks and a backhoe loader to drag away long concrete blocks from roads running past the embassy and leading up to gates of the compound, a Reuters witness said. The barriers had prevented vehicles approaching at high speeds.


Police and government officials refused to respond to repeated requests for comment on why the embassy barricades were taken away. But Indian television networks, citing unnamed sources, reported that the removal was one of several retaliatory measures that India planned to take.

A senior government official, who asked not to be named, said police posted in the area would ensure continued security.

"We take the security of all diplomatic missions in India very seriously. Check posts are provided. This is only an issue related to traffic flows," the official said.

As the dispute over the diplomat's treatment grew, several top politicians, including the leaders of the two main political parties and the national security adviser, refused to meet a delegation of U.S. lawmakers visiting India this week.

India's National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon branded as "barbaric" the treatment of the diplomat, who according to Indian media was handcuffed upon arrest last week and strip-searched before being released on bail.

Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly underpaying her nanny and committing visa fraud to get her into the United States.

Khobragade, who was released on $250,000 bail after pleading not guilty to the charges and surrendering her passport, faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted on both counts.

India has become a close trade and security partner of the United States over the past decade, but the two countries have not totally overcome a history of ties marked by distrust.

"Everything that can be done will be done I assure you. We take this thing very seriously," India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told news network CNN-IBN.

"We have put in motion what we believe will be an effective way of addressing this issue, but also put in motion such steps that we believe need to be taken to protect her dignity."

Indian television networks said the other steps included checking the salaries paid by U.S. embassy staff to domestic helpers and withdrawing consular identification cards and privileges such as access to airport lounges for some U.S. diplomats and their families.

India's foreign ministry and the U.S. embassy said they were unable to comment on the media reports.

Khobragade's arrest triggered a fierce debate in India over how to respond to the alleged mistreatment of the helper.

Government minister Shashi Tharoor, a former U.N. diplomat, said many envoys from developing countries in New York were themselves paid less than the U.S. minimum wage and that it was unrealistic to expect them to pay domestic staff more.

EYES ON ELECTION

Khobragade falsely stated in her nanny's visa application that she would be paid $9.75 an hour, a figure that would have been in line with the minimum rates required by U.S. law, according to a statement issued last week by the public attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The diplomat had privately agreed with the domestic worker that she would receive just over a third of that rate, the public attorney said.

With general elections due in less than six months, India's political parties are determined not to be labelled soft or unpatriotic.

Narendra Modi, the prime ministerial candidate for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, and Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that leads India's ruling Congress party, both declined to meet the U.S. delegation.

"Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted (out) to our lady diplomat in USA," Modi said in a tweet.

A senior member of Modi's socially conservative party, currently favourite to form the next government, said India should retaliate by putting partners of gay U.S. diplomats in the country behind bars. India's Supreme Court last week effectively ruled homosexuality to be illegal.

"The reason why they have arrested this Indian diplomat in New York is violation of the law of the land in the United States. Now the same violation is taking place wherever U.S. embassy official have obtained visas for their partners of the same sex," former finance minister Yashwant Sinha told Reuters.

"If American law can apply to Indian diplomats in New York, the India law can apply here," he said.

The case is the latest concerning alleged ill-treatment of domestic workers by India's elite, both at home and abroad.

In June 2011, an Indian maid working for the country's consul general in New York filed a lawsuit alleging that he was using her as forced labour.

A member of parliament's wife was arrested last month for allegedly beating her maid to death at her home in Delhi.

Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, consular officials enjoy immunity from arrest only for crimes committed in connection with their work.

U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Monday that diplomatic security staff had followed standard procedures during Khobragade's arrest and then handed her over to U.S. Marshals.

(Additional reporting by Adnan Abidi in NEW DELHI; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

[vector7]

This may be a BRIC, Russia and or Axis strategy to isolate America before war.

[American Patriot]

I'm not sure what's happening, but things are moving rather quickly across the board here. Russians are moving weapons around, building things up quickly, and getting really pissy with America.

Now India?

[Ryan Ruck]

Best. Foreign policy handling. Ever.

[Avvakum]

Best. Foreign policy handling. Ever.

This Administration is one of the best examples of awkwardly disguised malevolence and sheer stupidity i've ever seen; and I remember Jimmy Carter.... He's an Abraham Lincoln or Theodore Rooseveldt compared to Obama.

[American Patriot]

Here's the rest of the story.

Indian diplomat Khobragade was strip-searched after arrest in U.S

NEW YORK Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:32am IST

2 Comments

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A U.S. embassy security guard (L) and an Indian policeman stand in front of the main gate of the embassy as the bulldozer (unseen) removes the security barriers, in New Delhi December 17, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi




PICTURE GALLERY

India-U.S. diplomatic row






(Reuters) - An Indian diplomat arrested last week for allegedly committing visa fraud and underpaying her nanny was strip-searched, the U.S. Marshals Service Office of Public Affairs confirmed on Tuesday.


The case of the diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, has become a diplomatic incident between Washington and New Delhi, where police have removed concrete security barriers in front of the U.S. Embassy in apparent retaliation for her treatment.


(Reporting By Chris Francescani)

[Malsua]

In India, rich people aren't subject to the same "justice" as poor people. Therefore, this is a big insult.

That said, who wouldn't want to strip search her? Other than the fact that she's an entitled cunt who expects slaves to wait on her, she's nice to look at.

[American Patriot]

YEAH! What Mal said. lol

[Avvakum]

YEAH! What Mal said. lol

Yeah, she's not 'Bollywood Actress' level hot, but pretty nice. I wonder if the story about her trouble with a nanny is true though.

[American Patriot]

So... I heard they indicted this gal on charges for underpaying her help or something (I'm honestly not sure how you can even do that....) - but anyway, here's the latest.





Accused Indian diplomat flies back to New Delhi

Indian activists from a group called Dalit Cobra protest outside the U.S. consulate in Mumbai. (Rajanish Kakade, AP / January 7, 2014)

• India diplomat charged with visa fraud
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• Defying U.S. concern, Afghan government to free 72 terrorism suspects

By Shashank Bengali January 10, 2014, 5:03 a.m.




MUMBAI, India -- The diplomat at the center of an ugly spat between the United States and India flew back to New Delhi on Friday after U.S. officials granted her immunity from prosecution on charges of falsifying visa documents and lying about underpaying her housekeeper.

The diplomat, 39-year-old Devyani Khobragade, was indicted by a federal grand jury in New York late Thursday, but the State Department allowed her to leave the United States in a bid to end a monthlong quarrel that has badly damaged U.S.-India relations.


The Indian ministry of external affairs said that Khobragade "reiterated her innocence on charges filed against her" and expressed gratitude to the Indian people "for their strong and sustained support during this period."


Uttam Khobragade, her father, told The Times in a phone interview that she had been vindicated, saying, “The people of India have always believed that she has not done anything wrong.”


The U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, said that no arraignment on the charges would be scheduled since Khobragade had left the country.


‘’The charges will remain pending until such time as she can be brought to court to face the charges, either through a waiver of immunity or the defendant’s return to the United States in a non-immune status,” Bharara wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin.


Khobragade was arrested Dec. 12 in Manhattan after dropping her daughters off at school, an incident that sparked a furor in India, where officials complained that the issue wasn’t handled quietly between the governments. India retaliated by imposing a series of punishments on American personnel in New Delhi, including removing traffic barricades outside the U.S. Embassy and ordering the embassy’s popular social club to cease screening films without approval from Indian censors.


For its part, the U.S. called off visits to India by the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Nisha Desai Biswal, and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.


On Friday, as Khobragade flew home, India reportedly asked the U.S. Embassy to withdraw an American official from New Delhi. “India has reason to believe that this officer was involved in processes relating to Devyani’s case and subsequent unilateral action by U.S.,” the television station NDTV said on its website.


The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.


Khobragade’s housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, issued her first public comments on the matter Thursday, saying the diplomat forced her to work long hours and refused her requests to return to India. The indictment accuses Khobragade of submitting a false contract stating she would pay Richard $9.50 an hour in accordance with the New York minimum wage, but in fact paid her a fraction of that.


“I never thought that things would get so bad here, that I would work so much that I did not have time to sleep or eat or have time to myself,” Richard said in a statement released by Safe Horizon, an anti-human-trafficking group in New York, which is representing her in the case against Khobragade.


“I would like to tell other domestic workers who are suffering as I did -- you have rights and do not let anyone exploit you.”


Khobragade’s father characterized her as a doting mother whose daughters would rejoin her in India after a few months along with her husband, a U.S. citizen. He shrugged off the indictment against her in New York, saying she could continue her diplomatic career elsewhere.


“America is not the only country where people can go,” he said. “There are more civilized countries.”

[Malsua]

“America is not the only country where people can go,” he said. “There are more civilized countries where you don't have to pay your help"

I corrected his statement.

[American Patriot]

/chuckles


True

Snotty, snooty Rich Indian Bitches, anyway.....