Devyani Khobragade Incident: Is Indian Public’s and Governments reaction justified?

Devyani Khobragade was arrested, humiliated by being stripped and released on bail and there are criminal charges for pending against her for paying less than minimum wages and providing false statements in order to gain entry to the United States for her domestic maid.

·             She was arrested even though she enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

She enjoyed consular immunity which is not the same as diplomatic immunity. If consular immunity was enough, why did Indian government move her another position to give her real diplomatic immunity?

·             But didn’t USA claim diplomatic immunity for Davis Raymond when he shot two ‘armed men’ who stopped him while he was driving.  

When are armed men brandishing weapons who stop you are not a serious enough threat? Wouldn’t shooting them count as self-defence? Anyway, Davis was NOT let off by Pakistani government. Finally when he was released, he was released under a principle of Sharia (Islamic law) that allows murder charges to be dismissed if diyya is paid to the deceased's families (if and only if, they agreed without any pressure), an arrangement which is legal and common in Pakistan.

·              But why should she be arrested in public view, handcuffed in front of her children and strip-searched?

Public view? Are the American law enforcement supposed to arrest alleged criminals in Private and secrecy?

Why handcuffed? According to other side, she was not. Maybe she was.

Why Strip searched? This is the act which has really disturbed the Indians the most. This is really deeply humiliating and does not happen in most countries. But like it or not, laws and culture are very different in different nations. In US it is legal to burn the US flag, other countries’ flags, burn the bible or Koran, heap ridicule on any religion, wear underwear made of the national flag, have gay sex, have an unlicensed gun and your are legally very safe. It’s not a big deal. In India, all these things are pretty serious stuff. In India what you a pay a domestic maid is none of the law's business. We got to accept, laws are different in different nations.

Most Indians will find it hard to believe but in the US, thousands of people arrested every day even for the most trivial reasons and routinely strip searched, even awaiting hearing. In a landmark case in 2102, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that jail strip searches for new inmates were constitutional, even when there is no suspicion that an individual is hiding contraband. The decision applied to anyone arrested accused of a crime, including relatively minor infractions such as traffic violations. Such searches are a common feature of the U.S. criminal justice system regardless of race, gender, good looks or status in society. Anyone taken to holding cells of the New York federal courthouse is automatically subjected to a strip search if they are placed among other prisoners. For those still not convinced about this fact just need to a five minute Google search. This may not be a good thing but not something which happened to Devyani out of discrimination.

·             But why was she was placed along with drug addicts and the like!

Seriously? Even while traveling in a train the person on the next seat may be a drug addict! What was she expecting in a prison cell? Specially selected companions just for her?

·             But everybody does it.

This might be a common practice amongst the Indian Foreign service officers. In fact, it seems clear that there is Indian Governments active support for this practice which is not really wrong as per Indian law or sensibilities. That is exactly the reason for the anger and bitterness running high in the Indian Foreign Service, which closed ranks behind its young colleague. They are accomplices in the deed and shocked. It could have been any one them too in place of Devyani.

But is it reasonable to expect the US judge to be impressed by this argument.

·             But is a conspiracy and pre-planned. How come Sangeeta’s family was flown in just a few days before to the US? Their action is an adverse comment on the Indian legal system as the family.

So are we going to accuse the prosecutors for planning in their job?

Is there even one sane argument in favour of the Indian response?

Can someone help me to decide which party I should vote for?

Election fever is catching up in India. Inevitably people are making up their opinions for and against political parties and political leaders. Here is the kind of party I would like vote for:-

A party which represents all people, communities, castes, creeds, religions equally. There are many countries with a fairly homogeneous population. I can’t think of any country with more heterogeneity than India. Going by history and experiences of other nations, I guess a party which does not represent all of us equally will be outright dangerous even if that may not be initially apparent.

Extending this philosophy, I would like to vote for a party which does not try to rally us or even worse impose on us some identity symbolism even if it purports to be representing the Indian nation. What may be a symbol of national pride for some may not be for some others. In a country like India I guess it is only trouble mongering. I don’t want anyone to tell me that I have to confirm with some way of displaying national pride. It is a controversial road which I think is best not traveled upon.

A party which does not want to rewrite the history books to instill pride in us or some other such objective, but can just be happy with the truth.

Again from the concept of equality of people stems my support for equality of opportunity for all. Which also means a party which is not for reservations. (This cannot seriously happen as there is too much ‘democratic’ support for reservations from the beneficiaries. It’s hopeless really)

Also equality of opportunity of all does not mean economic equality of all by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Competition is very necessary in a nation’s economic development. While I support an escape chute for those who slip below a certain level of economic condition which is to paid for by taxing the others who are not so unfortunate but it ends there. No more subsidy than that. Ruthless business competition within the country is the only way to survive the global competition. Too much subsidy is in reality too much penalty (tax) on profitable business. Capital flows out of such socialist economies to business friendly nations. Impoverishing the socialist nations and enriching the capitalist. But I do support investment by public money in the sphere of education and health. I want the political party to clearly understand that by taxing the rich more than the global norms, they simply will move out with their wealth or not come in. It’s something like killing the golden goose to get more golden eggs is not a good idea.

I would like to vote for a government which takes the defense preparedness much more seriously. We must be friendlier to other nations, definitely not be jingoistic. That’s more like empty vessels make most noise. My vote is for much more defense preparedness.

About handling religion. Well, I would like to vote for a party which is secular. There seems to be some confusion about the meaning of this word. My dictionary says “A doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations” I would like to go with this meaning. And I don’t think that it means equal pandering of all religions. Since this area is a bit prone to controversies so here are some clarification as to what kind of party I want to vote for:

·       A party which if in power means to uphold freedom to believe and propagate any kind of religion or the lack of it by the citizens.

·       A party which upholds freedom of expression in favour of or against any or all religions. A party which does not ban books, movies etc. under threat of a ‘law and order’ situation but can use force if necessary to uphold the freedom of expression. Issuing of threats of violence is not ‘free speech’ but unintelligent or even mindless, criticism of some or all religions is very much part of free speech which needs to be protected by the state.

·       A party which legislates to abolish blasphemy laws in its various forms in the country. They are a contradiction to both secularism and freedom of speech.

·       The government should not be in the business of running religious places, subsidising religious activities or exempting religious business from tax.

·       The party which makes laws not for banning but uphold religious conversions as part of free exercise of religion. Even if it is by allurement. Anyone is of course free to offer even greater allurement to bring such people back to their earlier religion.

A party which can act strongly to free us from the rot of corruption.

A party which can end the prevalent idea of assured career growth in government jobs. With no real competition to perform or perish, it is wonder that the government officers and employees work at all. The inefficiency of all of the government stems from this one single reason: The lack of competition in their career progression.

 A party that does not actively promote education in Indian language(s) for identity reasons and ruin an entire generation’s future. (While their own children study in English medium schools). Will the child who studied in native language schools because of decisions taken by a state government have the equal employment opportunities in the market as a child who studied in English medium with equal IQ?

So can you help me decide which is the party that is closest to my aspirations?