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?