It is highly doubtful that the US will accede to India's request to drop the case against the diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched in New York City. If Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, broke the law, then she broke the law, and nobody, Indian or otherwise, diplomat or otherwise, female or otherwise, should be above the law. It is at the same time very strange that Khobragade should have been strip-searched for her alleged crime, which is submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Indian Manhattan housekeeper. Not paying a housekeeper enough money is not enough justification to be thrown into a cell with among other clientele, drug addicts. This is not a crime that warrants a strip-search, which should be reserved for hardened, dangerous criminals. Khobragade is not a violent criminal or a terror suspect, and she doesn't appear to be a threat to public safety. This is not a line-up crime and the punishment does not fit the crime, especially considering that being a diplomat Khobragade has some sort of diplomatic immunity. The diplomatic row between the US and India has also clouded who is the real victim in this case, Khobragade or the maid? There is not much sympathy for the latter even though there should be. Of all the Indian responses to Khobragade's treatment, a call for an investigation into the salaries paid to Indian staff in US Embassy households could be the most beneficial. There have been a series of controversies involving Indians exploiting domestic workers, and the salaries paid to housekeepers and other workers in India must be re-evaluated. Every crisis at least theoretically provides an opportunity to address a festering issue. Khobragade is not charged because she paid her housemaid $3 per hour, a fraction of the minimum wage. She is charged with lying about the employee's salary in a visa application. And in a country like the US, this is a crime. This has nothing to do with bigotry or racism or the color of someone's skin, or where he comes from or the religion he practices. The maid is not even American, but the alleged crime was committed on American soil, illustrating the rights people have in America, whether they are citizens or foreigners. Note that the US is defending the rights of the weak maid against the power of the mighty diplomat. In so many other countries, perhaps India included, it is the reverse – the law is amenable to the strong, but is practiced to the letter and comes down hard on the helpless. That India and the United States have allowed a relatively minor legal case to become a major test in US-India relations shows some inherent historical weaknesses in the ties. Local politics is, too, taking advantage of the Khobragade story, with India facing national elections by May 2014. The ruling Congress and the nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party are both keen to demonstrate their willingness to take a tough diplomatic line. In another country, Khobragade could have been declared persona non grata and her immediate departure would have been demanded. But America, like all Western democracies, is a country based and founded on the law. If it is standard practice for any defendant, rich or poor, American or not, diplomat or technocrat, to go through a full search, then there should be no exceptions. All must abide by the laws of the country they are living in and be prepared to go through the judicial system of that country should they break the law.
