New Delhi: India vowed on Wednesday to bring one of its diplomats home at any price after her arrest in New York, as she told how she broke down in tears after being repeatedly stripped and cavity-searched.
Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid pledged to “restore the dignity” of the diplomat — whose treatment at the hands of a superpower has touched a raw nerve.
India also said it wants “unconditional release” of its diplomat in New York, Devyani Khobragade, and withdrawal of all charges against her. The US stuck to its guns, saying it acted “appropriately”. The US has also demanded restoration of security for its missions in India.
Khobragade was moved to India’s permanent mission in New York, where she will enjoy full diplomatic immunity, something her consular status did not provide. Khobragade has been charged with visa fraud and under-paying the domestic help she took along with her from India.
In an email to colleagues published on Wednesday, Khobragade said she told arresting authorities that she had diplomatic immunity — only to suffer repeated searches and to be jailed with “common criminals”.
“I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a hold-up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity,” she said in the email.
“I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified, thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride.”
Khurshid said the diplomat was trapped in a “conspiracy” after the helper disappeared in June-July. This prompted her to report it to police, only to receive a phone call from a lawyer offering to “settle the matter”.
India also denied that its move to remove barricades around the US embassy in New Delhi would, in any way, impact the security of the mission, saying there was adequate security in place, including a police picket and patrolling.
The police barricades on Nyaya Marg in New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave had come up following the 9/11 attacks in the US.
On Tuesday, the police barricades were removed while the police picket remained.
Khurshid’s promise came a day after India announced a series of diplomatic reprisals and despite an overnight plea by the US State Department not to let the issue damage relations.
“It is my duty to bring the lady back,” Khurshid told lawmakers.
“We have to restore her dignity and I will do it at any cost,” he added in the highest-level intervention by an Indian official since deputy consul general Devyani Khobragade was arrested last Thursday.
“It’s hurtful, it’s distressing, it’s unacceptable and it is something on which, as we said, we need to give a very clear clarion call that it must be reversed,” he later told reporters.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called her arrest “deplorable” in brief comments reported by the Press Trust of India.
The US Marshals Service confirmed on Tuesday that Khobragade, 39, had been strip-searched like other prisoners after being detained while dropping her two children off at school.
“India takes on Uncle Sam,” read the front-page headline of The Hindustan Times, while the Mail Today splashed with “Bulldozer Diplomacy” on top of a picture of a digger dragging away concrete barricades outside the US embassy on Tuesday.
US consular officials have also been told to return identity cards that speed up travel into and through India. Import clearances for them, including for alcohol, have been suspended.
The ultra-nationalist Shiv Sena organisation staged an anti-US protest on Wednesday, shouting slogans such as “Down with Barack Obama!”
“The way America has tortured our diplomat is wrong. They stripped her down and humiliated an Indian woman, an Indian representative and we will not tolerate that,” said Jaiprakash Baghal, one of the protesters.
Another could be seen naked except for an American flag wrapped around his waist and a mask of US President Barack Obama as demonstrators marched towards the American embassy.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf admitted the arrest was a “sensitive issue” but insisted it was a “separate and isolated incident” which should not be allowed to affect broader ties.
Harf added that as a consular official, Khobragade does not have full diplomatic immunity but has consular immunity applicable only to her professional duties.
Khobragade is alleged to have paid her worker just $3.31 (Dh12) an hour despite signing a contract to pay her some three times that amount.
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