Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Our diplomats need counseling' that was published in Newsband

Our diplomats need counseling

Devyani Khobragade has returned to India. She didn’t have to go through a trial and imprisonment in the United States. In order to give Ms. Khobragade the cover of full immunity New Delhi transferred her from the Indian Consulate-General in New York to its mission at the United Nations; The diplomat, who is married to a U.S. national and has left her children behind, will not be given a visa or allowed to enter the country again. India has retaliated by expelling an American official.

New Delhi withdrawing special privileges to U.S. diplomats based in this country and the postponement of a visit by the U.S. Energy Secretary is worrying the Indians who are pro-US.  

One fails to understand as to why the case of one consul has been making headlines for the past one month while women getting raped daily at the Muzzafarpur camps hardly makes headlines or stirs any public anger. There is no need to make Devyani a matter of national pride especially when there are many other pressing matters that deserve attention.

Foreign Ministry most egregiously lets an IFS official remain in service while married to a foreign national, that too in the very country of posting. Gone are those days of instant removal of IFS officials from service when they married non-Indian nationals. Once she marries a foreign national, she is no more an Indian. Then how was she representing India in the US.  

If we were a law-abiding country, we would put this lady on trial here. It is all because Indian Foreign Service personnel are the least accountable, least scrutinized by media and least interfered in day to day work by MLAs and MPs as they are away from the shores of India. They think that their ‘interests’ should be protected at any cost.

Let us hope that the lengthy episode going on from last month will not affect the bilateral relationships between India and US. India escalated the situation and never got anything in return for it. Sure they have her back, but they lost other Indian citizens (the maid and family).

U.S. should be commended for having honoured the Vienna convention by granting full immunity to alleged accused and she was allowed to leave the states even though she has been indicted for a felony; However, the accused might be arrested because U.S. has denied to drop the indictment against her.

One must applaud the US for the measures it took to protect the interests of the domestic worker. The Indian government should have at least voiced some concern for the maid, also an Indian citizen. Instead it removes security barricades and expels the US diplomat. U.S.A. must have found itself perplexed as such unprecedented retaliatory moves, though in some cases of past situation warranted, were never dared by India. This is not the way to handle such a case. Instead the Indian government should provide some counseling for our diplomats about the laws of the land they are sent to.