Guest Post by GODFREY PEREIRA
Devyani Khobragade was arrested on December 12th on charges of visa fraud and misrepresentation. At the time of her arrest, she was functioning as deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York.
Soon after her arrest, the Indian government hastily transferred Khobragade to the permanent mission of India to the United Nations (UN), hoping that that this would give her the necessary Diplomatic immunity from arrest. Diplomatically this move was a “by the book” maneuver.
Question: If she had Diplomatic Immunity, why was she transferred to the permanent mission?
Question: If she had Diplomatic Immunity, why was a formal official application forwarded to U.S. authorities for full Diplomatic immunity AFTER she was arrested? Legally the Indian government should have, could have stood their ground, if they really believed that she had diplomatic immunity in the first place; because that’s what they were shouting about through their malfunctioning megaphones from the beginning. Right…Yes…No….Maybe…
The nitty- gritty dirt and hysterical eruptions that followed in India are well documented by now.
Then the Spin Doctors at the Indian Embassy started handing out international placebos. Richard was a liar, a blackmailer, and a thief. Nobody took their accusations seriously. Richard would have been arrested if there was any credence to these crass falsified accusations.
A U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman has categorically stated that Khobragade does not have full diplomatic immunity. Instead, she has consular immunity from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts only with respect to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions. These statements stand till this date.
Much of the vitriol that India spewed was directed at the Prosecutor, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who was born in India and brought up in New Jersey. He stated that Devyani Khobragade‘s, conduct showed that “she clearly tried to evade U.S. law designed to protect from exploitation the domestic employees of diplomats and consular officers. Is it for U.S. prosecutors to look the other way, ignore the law and the civil rights of victims,” Bharara asked, “or is it the responsibility of the diplomats and consular officers and their government to make sure the law is observed?”
“And one wonders,” Bharara added, “why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?”
What are the Indians saying here? Because he is born Indian, he should adopt the Indian Chai Pani, Chalta Hai attitude? The Indian press savaged Bharara, swearing that he had political aspirations. This verbal diarrhea was spewed by journalistic hacks and political Rat Babus, and nobody dared contradict this.
For the sake of discussion, even if she did have diplomatic immunity, which has been a big question from the beginning, does that make her crime of exploiting Sangeeta Richard forgivable?
There is an old spaghetti Western movie line that has Native Americans saying, “White Man Speaks with Forked Tongue.” That’s what most Indians seem to be saying about America right now. And what about Devyani Khobragade? Did her forked tongue make her act the way she did? A wealthy Dalit woman exploiting the poor and powerless is an affront to everything Dr. B.R. Ambedkar stood for, it is a shame to everything that the Dalits stand for and against.
A majority of the hysteria seems to have abated after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry intervened. The Indians are still waiting for an “apology,” that is simmering on the back burner., so as another reminder, the Indians began looking into the tax status of Americans working at schools in India.The professional protestors, urged on by the political Rat Babus have disappeared and the Indian media is in a wait and watch sniper mode, squinting through the scope, hoping for a good head shot if the American target moves in the wrong direction.
And they could have taken that shot when Uttam Khobragade, a former bureaucrat, accused daughter Devyani’s housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard of espionage during a press conference in Mumbai. ‘Going by the developments that have taken place over the last one year, the government of India feels that it appears to be a conspiracy,’ he stated. Please note here: The government of India never did talk about any conspiracy, especially not one connected with the C.I.A. much of the Indian press fortunately ignored his idiocy.But a few bloggers and foreign affairs experts published their masturbatory opinions on how Richards was a CIA agent. Pathetic. Nobody tried to contradict this or tell this fiction producing idiot that he was a moron.
Mr Khobragade stated in the Indian Press. “From the given circumstances, we suspect that Sangeeta Richards is an agent of the CIA. We were made scapegoats in the whole case. Devyani is a brave woman and she has been performing all her duties regularly.” Oh Really. La de da! And what about you Mr Khobragade.? Why did the U.S. authorities send for the Richards Family? Why are they in The United States right now?
Outlook India reported: that Khobragade’s father tried to intimidate the Richards family. He sent the police on a late night visit to the home of the Richards family in India. Richards’s daughter wrote to the U.S. State Department that there were five policemen who intimidated the family. There was talk of destroying the family. That is how power works in India. Does anybody dare contradict this? How do you plead Mr Khobragade?
The fact that Sangeeta Richard was the victim here seems to have by passed Indians. The hysterical blabbering for action against America was fore front. That Richard was exploited was forgotten. In India, Devyani Khobragade advocated for women’s rights. But in New York, she was a slave driver, says the family of Khobragade’s housekeeper.
Consular official Khobragade worked domestic servant Sangeeta Richard from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, “tantamount to keeping a person in slavery-like conditions or keeping a person in bondage,” Richard’s husband, Philip, said in court papers filed in Delhi.
In India, the fact that she was exploited by a Dalit Diplomat was relegated to the shadows. Devyani Khobragade did to Sangeeta Richard what the Brahmins and upper castes have been doing to her people for centuries. This hypocritical Dalit Diplomat exploited Richards because she was powerless. Considering the history of untouchability in India, this is double shame on her and the diplomatic silver lining public shadow she has been advertising. Here is a woman who has verbally spouted woman rights. In an April interview with The Indian Panorama, a weekly Manhattan-based newspaper, Khobragade claimed that she was proud to be a strong advocate for “underprivileged” women’s rights. What was Richards but not underprivileged? It will take more than a ritual purification bath and puja to cleanse this diplomat’s soul. What the Indian public is screaming about is that the American heavy hand which led to international humiliation is bigger that the crime of Devyani Khobragade. Teeth snapping, tounge in cheek blogs, bad satire, strident editorials and bollywood type media assaults fell short of a universal chant of “Death To—- M-Ree-Ka.” This, all in favor of an Indian IFS Officer who exploited her maid.
I don’t understand, and find it incredibly ironic that the common man and woman did not side with Richards. I understand why they would thunder against the United States. There is some justification in their hurt, but their overall siding with Khobragade is astounding. If you speak to most City Indians and the topic of “America” emerges, at some point you will hear the words “These Americans…” spat out in a derogatory snarky tone. So in siding with Khobragade, they took sides against The United States, and to hell with Sangeeta Richards and the justice she was looking for; America was a bigger tastier white Satan fish to fry, all they had to do was add garam masala!
And there were hundreds of wise scribes who pontificated, frothing at the mouth while they masturbated with intellectual, closed fist righteous indignation at their computers. Here is an example. Brigadier (retd) V Mahalingam, in a Times Of India blog argued:’ the salaryof most of the Indian diplomats in U.S. is around Rs 3 lakh per month and Devyani herself is not getting more than Rs 4 lakh per month. How could she afford to pay $4500 US dollars per month to her domestic help which amounts to approximately Rs 2.8 lakh in addition to free boarding and lodging? Incidentally, a large number of post graduate technical workers from India employed in US are paid about $4500 to 6000 US dollars per month as their monthly salary without any boarding or lodging. Where is the logic? ‘
The logic is simple, dear retired Brigadier. Do your dirty, filthy domestic work yourself. If you want a full time baby sitter/ maid/ domestic help to clean your toilets and wash your dirty laundry, and do your dirty dishes, and swab your floors and look after your two children you compensate them for work done and the time frame of that work. If you want someone to do it for you in America, you pay a bloody living wage. That is the reason and logic why most Americans cannot afford full time maids or chauffeurs They do their dirty work themselves. And Mr retired Brigadier; Sangeeta Richard worked like a slave from early morning to late at night seven days a week. Here the question of LEGAL overtime comes in. It is the law of the land.
Because the maid was earning two dollars a day in her country there is no humane reason why she should not be earning what the laws of the country she is working in state. Do you disagree with that logic? The normal Indian reaction is , ‘Oh, look she is living “abroad” in a fancy house and she does not have to sleep in the kitchen on the floor and she is being given good food and is being treated nicely. And she is saving all her money! What more does she want? Who does she think she is, coming from a small village and all! She’s just a Servant in the end.’ Wrong. The maid is being duped by her employer. A living wage is the law of the land. The hours that Richards put in day after day, night after night were not compensated for. This is exploitation. The law of the land states that with astounding clarity.
She worked as a baby sitter as well as a house maid. In America, baby sitters do not double as house maids, unless they are paid extra for the job of house maid. You cannot treat a maid like a “Servant” here; I know, it is different “back home.”
Indians exploiting Indians abroad is not recent news. There is a history here. Indians are infamous for exploiting their fellow countrymen in foreign countries and now Khobragade has joined that sorry soiled list. They know it is safe to do it to their ‘desi’ people most of who are new immigrants, and are scared, poor and powerless. The Indian exploitatiors will not dare do it to say, an American or British citizen, because if they did, “Your sorry exploiting ass would be before a judge.” There is international documentation to prove how Indians violate and stab other Indians in the back abroad.
Anannya Bhattacharjee of the Gharelu Kaamgaar Sanghatan, and who has worked with Indian domestic workers in New York, says “The Indian government is only focusing on the diplomat. It is extremely unfortunate that they have not spoken about the domestic worker. Even when they have, they make it sound like a conspiracy. This particular issue is really about the feudal relations with Indian domestic workers and their relations with their employers. Such relationships are rampant in India and among Indians living abroad.”
So here we go down the path that many Indians don’t want walk or talk about.
Anannya Bhattacharjee knows what she is talking about.
New York: Dr Neena Malhotra, an Indian Foreign Service officer, served as a Press and Culture Counsellor at the Indian Consulate in New York from 2006-2009 was sued by her former maid, Shanti Gurung and was ordered by the court to pay $1.46 Million for treating her in barbaric conditions.
The legal battle ended in a big victory for the maid. U.S. Magistrate Judge Frank Maas recommended Shanti Gurung be awarded $392,721 for unpaid wages (including liquidated damages), $36,076 in prejudgment interest, $500,000 for emotional distress, and $300,000 in punitive damages, for a total of $1,228,797. Including legal fees, the Malhotras must pay $1.46 million to Shanti Gurung. The million dollar question now, at least for us, is how Shanti Gurung will get her million dollar payout. Neena Malhotra has been out of the U.S. for nearly four years now.
And then this: The external affairs ministry gave a clean chit to senior diplomat Neena Malhotra, who was sued by her former domestic help for allegedly subjecting her to “slavery and peonage” for over three years during her stint in New York as India’s Consul General.
The ministry had seen media reports and looked into the matter, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash, told reporters. “It is understood that Shanti Gurung, service staff of Dr. Neena Malhotra, then Consul at Consulate General of India, New York, had disappeared on the eve of the latter’s return to India,” added Prakash. How very, very convenient for Neena Malhotra. If anybody reading this does not smell a sordid back room stinking deal, with rancid Rat Babu political pressure that intimidated Shanti Gurung, your common sense must be severely castrated.
New York: June 2011, India’s then Consul General in New York Prabhu Dayal, was sued by a former housekeeper Santosh Bharadwaj. The maid accused Dayal of intimidating her into a year of forced labor. Bhardwaj’s lawyers stated that the pay, made in rupees, in New York amounted to an average of $300 per month. A year later, he reportedly settled the case on undisclosed terms. Story over. Dayal left for the safe bosom of his motherland.
London: June 2009: An Indian solicitor and two women who both claimed to be his wives made a mockery of Labour’s supposedly tough border controls while taking part in the biggest visa scam seen in Britain. Jatinder Kumar Sharma and one of his wives, illegal immigrant Rakhi Shahi, ran a fraud factory helping hundreds of immigrants apply for visas using bogus documents and false identities. Neelam Sharma – who also claimed to be Sharma’s wife – was convicted of handling some of the £1.5million which poured into the immigration consultancy business, named Univisas. When police raided the company’s office in Southall, West London, they found 90,000 documents including 980 visa application files, false university certificates, academic records, bank statements and pay slips. Police suspect the company secured visas for at least 1,000 people, mostly from the Indian sub-continent, using a network of bogus colleges in London, Manchester, Bradford and Essex. Most of the bogus students they got into the UK are still here. Jatinder Sharma, 44, was jailed for seven years for offences including conspiracy, money laundering and deception.
First the Indians get duped by Indians and then they land in places like Southall where they are further violated and humiliated by other Indians.
London: Ukip councillor Benjamin Dennehy refused to apologise after describing Southall as “Largely an Indian community” that “harbors and exploits their own people in squalid third world living conditions”
Benjamin Dennehy, who represents Ealing’s Hanger Hill Ward, refused to apologise He paid a price for telling the truth and for refusing to bow down to political correctness. He was expelled from the Tory party shortly afterwards, was found to have breached the local authority’s code of conduct and was told to remove the post and say sorry by Ealing Council’s Standards Committee in May.
The Blog also stated: “It is a largely Indian community who say they deplore this behavior but yet it is that very same community that harbors and exploits their own people in squalid third world living conditions.”
London: A young Indian immigrant Jandeep, a Punjabi, exploited and driven to desperation in Southall spoke to the BBC reporter Chris Rogers who stated: ‘The immigrants complain of damp, cramped conditions, but being exploited by their own people angers them most.’
“Our people who are here legally, permanent residents, who’ve made homes here, they’ve paid for their houses because of us,” Jandeep said angrily. “Their mortgages are paid because they charge a high rent. Everyone who lives here is Punjabi.”
Is all this being “manufactured” to put down the Indian Community abroad? As an Indian what is your gut feeling here? Do you care that Indians do this to Indians all over the world?
Australia, 2013 Melbourne: A three-year-long detailed study by Macquarie University, titled ‘Precarious Experiences of Indians in Australia’ discovered that Indian visa holders faced numerous problems with regard to securing work, and their treatment at work once they were employed.
It was also discovered that Indian employers justified their treatment of their 457-visa workers saying that “this is what these workers are used to in their own country.”
A new study discovered that Australian employers and managers, often of Indian ethnicity, frequently exploit their fellow Indian blue-collar workers who come to Australia on temporary visas. The new immigrants often face harsh working conditions that their fellow Indians impose upon them.
New Zealand: Indian students contacted the Waikato Times claiming Indian students were being paid as little as $5 an hour in some of Hamilton’s Indian-owned restaurants and dairies.
Waikato Indian Students Club president Sandeep Mathur said there was a tight-knit Indian community in the city. Many attended the same temple and interacted frequently.
But when it came to the working week, the switch flips he stated and Indian business owners were taking advantage of the desperation of new immigrants.
“Some students told him they were paid as little as $5 an hour,” he said. The minimum wage is $13.75 an hour. “Students take up these jobs as a last resort, when everything else fails. And honestly, this does no good for them personally. They lose motivation, get depressed and lose self-confidence.”
A man formerly employed at an Indian restaurant in Hamilton talked to the Waikato Times on condition he was not named as he is involved with the Indian community. He said that when he came to Hamilton to study, he was hired as a general worker. There was no contract, no training and he was told he would be paid $8 an hour. The man stuck at the job for three months before the tasks he was asked to do drove him into the streets.
He said he was asked to clean chimneys, clean exhaust pipes, clean the boss’ car, use dangerous chemicals, and received no health and safety training.
“It’s nothing like when you’re working legally. You’re treated like shit. You’re working with acids and they don’t even give you goggles or gloves or anything,” he said. “It’s pretty bad but you just have no option.” Friends of his had even spent a month working for free as they were told this was the trial period.”When you come to New Zealand you don’t know people,” he stated “you don’t know what’s right and wrong. You don’t know there is a minimum wage or breaks or employee rights. And you’re desperate,”
And the Indians prey on their powerless “bothers” and destroy them. It is a psychological cannibalization that many Indians abroad are known to do.
Italy: ‘Tan Kosh’, a documentary detailing the difficult barbaric living conditions and exploitation of Indian workers in Italy won the first prize at the Digital Information Awards.The awards were organized by Italian daily “La Stampa.“Tan Kosh”, directed by Giordano Cossu, Saverio Paoletta and Harvinder Singh, revealed how Indian Sikh workers are exploited by their fellow countrymen in agricultural farms in Pontina, on the outskirts of Rome. Here the Indians teamed up with other Italians to exploit Indians. ‘Tan Kosh’ won the award for the high quality journalistic coverage of the situation of these vulnerable immigrant workers. Between 20,000 and 30,000 Sikhs live in the area, and most are irregular immigrants.
This cannibalistic Indian exploitation goes on and on and on, all over the world. The Khobragade story is only a small part of a larger horrible story.
The United States has said it will not drop charges against Khobragade. That is not going to change.
But as we all know, This IFS Officer is quietly going to slip back to India, never to return to the U.S.A. It has happened before. Ask Dr Neena Malhotra. It will be a case that will technically stay open and eventually fade into the file and forget department. Khobragade will finally be given Full Diplomatic Immunity. She will never ever be allowed to come back to America because she will be arrested. But she will be back in India soon. Why? Because…here is the bloody bottom line.
The US Census Bureau numbers involving trade between the US and India over the first six months of 2013 stated that exports from The United States to India totaled approximately $11.15 billion, and imports from India were twice that number or greater.
Nobody wants to rock that gravy boat. No sir-e. Not the Americans, “Not on yer life buddy, you can bet yer sweet ass on that,” and not the Indians “No, no baba. Areey, let us be moving on, not to be mentioning please all this rubbish nonsense.”
These figures render everything else untouchable. It is not worth the numbers in both countries to continue this saga. Economically she is not worth the money involved, and diplomatically she is not worth the political capital that will be destroyed. That’s the way international politics works, for better or worse.
And getting back to why so many Indians behave like despots abroad. The cast system runs deep in Indian veins. Out there on the streets and gullies, in small towns, villages and big cities, there will always be Bhangis and society manufactured sanctimonious rich powerful land owning, politically connected Bhagavāns who want to retain the unholy status quo. That holy ancient class and caste hierarchy that savages the inherent quality of human beings from birth to pyre seems to be alive in the shadows of the drinking wells, not only in India but all around the world. Every now and then, a case rears its ugly untouchable head to prove this.That just the way it was, it is, and shall be. That’s the unfortunate sad philosophy that so many successful Indians abroad still follow. Sure, there are many, many great Indian exceptions all over the world who find this kind of social behaviour abhorrent. This rich, successful Dalit Diplomat is certainly not one of those.
My name is Godfrey Joseph Pereira. I was exploited, traumatized, lied to, threatened and laughed at by Indians in New York City in 1993-94. I tried to commit suicide from the physical and psychological battering I had to endure. I am living testimony that Indians abroad, rape the rights of their fellow men and women because they view new immigrants as being powerless cheap work mules. The facts in this article are documented around the world. Indians exploiting Indian is a global desi disease that goes on till this day. That is what Sangeeta Richard is experiencing right now while Devyani Khobragade hides at 235 East, 43rd Street in New York City. It is not Khobragade’s permanent home. Remember she has a posh flat at the 30-storey apartment building Adarsh Housing Society in Colaba, Mumbai. The flats here were meant for defense personnel and more importantly for the families of the Kargil martyrs. Does her exalted Diplomatic Immunity give her a free pass here? Yes, no, maybe…
The report of the 2-member commission looking into this scam was shot down by the political Rat Babus. The commission headed by retired high court judge J. A. Patil described the scam as a “bad precedent” which reflected “greed, nepotism and favoritism” by those associated with it. A despondent Justice J.A. Patil said: “Adarsh is not a saga of ideal cooperation but a shameless tale of blatant violations of statutory provisions, rules and regulations. It reflects greed, nepotism and favoritism on the part of some people.”
But sure, Khobragade will be slinking back to India soon, to a saffron carpet welcome as political Rat Babus prance around her proclaiming victory.
Will somebody then, after she arrives in India, have the moral cojones to say something in favour of Richard, the woman who this Dalit Diplomat victimised?
This conversation is not over.
Please Note: The author has included news reports from all over the world without changing the content.
Godfrey Perriera’s novel ‘Bloodline Bandra’ has been accepted by Harper Collins
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
When thousands of Indians have difficulty getting a US visa for genuine purposes, how come Richard’s family got the visa so easily. Where were all the doubts that are otherwise expressed and applied for Indians. Even President Kalamazoo had to be insulting searched at US airports but Richard could get visa easily. Strange ways of US, and how come it remembered these laws only for Indians. Why does it not think about all the Indians who are underpaid by Walmart at its counters and stack areas across US and Canada
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The right questions to ask are: 1. Did Sangeetha qualify as a victim of severe trafficking? 2. Did Sangeetha’s masters engage in obtaining through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude 3. Did Sangeetha deserve measures to protect trafficked persons and their family members from intimidation and threats of reprisals and reprisals from traffickers and their associates; and 4. Did sangeetha deserve measures by US government to permit an alien individual’s continued presence in the United States,if after an assessment, it is determined that such individual is a victim of a severe form of trafficking and a potential witness to such trafficking, in order to effectuate prosecution of those responsible. 5. Did Sangeetha’s family members deserve to be protected from intimidation, threats of reprisals, and reprisals from traffickers and their associates? If answer to all the above are “YES”, then we have no right to object to: 1. Trial to find whether DK had violated the rights of the victim just because she was strip searched as process of her arrest. 2. Continued right of the victim to stay back in USA till completion of trial and 3. protection of immediate family from intimidation during trial in USA if necessary by assisted temporary migration to USA under the protection of victims and witness protection of trafficked persons. The father Khobragade is confusing the issue in desperate attempt to save the human rights violator daughter. He is trying to clutch on to every straw but nothing will stop justice from catching up. The victim Sangeetha is being painted as the villain of the piece. Father Khobragade might succeed in swaying the executive and the masses but his arguments has no meat at all in front of the judge and the jury during the trial of daughter Khboragade at SDNY district Court.
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First. Indians who work at Walmart are paid the minimum LEGAL wage plus legal overtime and are not illegally underpaid. If they are they, they have the easily exercised right, as do all Americans and resident aliens, to file a complaint with the local State labor boards and will definitely get restitution and the employer will be severely fined. Happens all the time and the employer does immediately pay, not 15 years later as happens in India if it ever does happen there even with a court order. Second, being searched at an American Airport security area has nothing whatsoever to do with getting a visa to the the USA. And for your information, everyone, native born and naturalized citizens, resident aliens, tourists, foreign dignitaries, the disabled, children, etc. are searched and humiliated and cowed at US airport security check in areas with the exception of the US President and family when they travel on US ONE.
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So Sai Ramani Garimella are you saying that until there is socialism in the US we Indian upper class people (….. the euphemism middle class when you are getting over a lakh per month) have every right to superexploit domestic SERVANTS from 6 AM to 11 PM and yell because the US authorities helped the Richards family? No comment at all about Khobragade?
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Two issues involved – American Hypocrisy and the writers’ blind belief in everything ‘American’. Reciprocating – when Indian Authorities asked for the salary structure of Indians in American consuls and schools in India – why it is not forthcoming and being delayed. Exploitation of working class is one issue – which is universal and has to be protested against in different forum. Here the ‘Indian Common Man’ is angry by the hotheadedness of Americans.
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That’s what the author is worried about. Why the common man is so worried about hot-headed Ness of America but not about the domestic worker. And why do people always try to identify the problem with race caste or nationality..? There was an alleged violation so let’s leave it to the judicial system to decide upon it., and let’s not put effort to take sides in the matter by blindly or semi blindly taking course of identity politics.
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I had commented on the Retired Brigadier’s blog which he censored out because he could not answer any of the questions I raised! Soon, I praised the Retired Brigadier for “his insight which he has shown in his brilliant article.” He censored that out too because he recognized my name, after all! Intellectual honesty is not exactly the strong point of the Retired Brigadier who wrote the article was evident from his censoring of the comments!
In USA, the prosecuting authority is under Department of Justice and the diplomatic matters are under Department of State. DoS can not influence or make DoJ drop a charge made under law because that would be obstruction of justice, a crime by itself! I have this to comment: 1. For the maid, to have aspirations to get the green card one day is NOT a crime! 2. For the maid to strike a hard nosed bargain in return for silence of crimes committed against her ( for which punishment is 15 years in jail and perhaps > $1 Million in compensation )it is NOT a crime. If she had a lawyer, he would have done that for her. Lawyer is not committing a crime 3. If she had gone to the immigration lawyer or INS first, it is not a crime. 4. If she had reported violation of law to the authorities, it is not a crime. 5. If she had run away from home, it is NOT a crime. 6. If she had kept in touch with her husband in India during her missing period, It is NOT a crime. 7. If the husband did not reveal her whereabouts, it is NOT a crime. 6. If she had taken advantage of anti-trafficking statutes of USA, it is not a crime. 7. If she had taken advantage of the Victim & Witness protection programs of Federal Government, either for herself or for her immediate family, it is NOT a crime. At the same time, 1. If the employer had contracted to pay full minimum wages with NO intention to pay the same while asking for A3 visa, it IS a crime. 2..If the employer had kept secret from the authorities about an alternative contract to pay less than minimum wages, it IS a crime. 3. If the employer had not opened a bank account for the maid in USA, it is a violation of law. 4. If the employer deliberately and willfully NOT paid the maid as per min wages by check or e transfer, it IS a crime. 5. If the employer had made the maid to work more than stipulated hours ( as per contract and law) and not paid over time, it IS a crime. 6. If the employer had kept the passport or other documents of the maid with the employer, it is a violation of law. 7. If the employer had intimidated the maid or her family by false charges or court orders, it is an offence of intimidating the employee who blew the whistle. 8. If the employer had publicized on the media her personal information and intimate writings like personal diary with out the consent of the employee, it is a violation of law. Publicizing her maids cheerful photo, or the information that her children called her aunt etc. do not prove that the employer had not committed the crimes/offences/violations of law listed above. Of course the defense lawyer will do every thing to obfuscate the offences and he is being paid for this job. . Is our nation so dumb? Are we so hung up on protecting an IFS officer who committed crimes and dumping an under paid Maid? Why can’t we do some critical thinking?
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I have recently written an article on the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade along with added comments concerning possible diplomatic immunity for her, which you can find here: http://bit.ly/19NJ99s
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Khobragade just cannot disappear easily from US like other diplomats did because she is married to US citizen!! and that’s complicated
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As an ethnic Indian living in North America, the buffoonery of the Indian response complete with the vandalizing of a Dominos Pizza outlet in Mumbai could only leave me in total shame. Perriera has asked the right questions. And, just as he pointed out, where is India’s moral outrage for the Indian citizen with no “immunity” whatsoever, and who was the victim of the fraud perpetrated by the consulate staff with “presumed” immunity? The Indian response has only exposed the hollow behaviours of a morally bankrupt bureaucracy, ruled by the kind of mob psyche that perennially bears the illusions of some rationale-based conduct becoming of world class citizenry!
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Oh man, what a vitriol. Sangeeta Richards is a victim and USA is a savior. Indians (read non Christians) are bad , casteist scumbags , corrupt.
Luckily Devyani is dalit, else this would have been portrayed the nth example of minority persecution by the Hindus, and this guy would have recommended a hindu-christian warfare by now, asking US to send its planes to bomb Indians everywhere.
USD 4500 for being a nanny? even walmart doesn’t pay so much for equally hard work.
And WalMart employs more people at slave wages than anyone else and right here in USA. And the american companies are shifting jobs overseas as all they want to pay is slave wages. If they can’t keep slaves in US, they will keep in China, Bangladesh, India.
Just look at the 1000s of girls who were locked up in a bangladeshi factory and were burnt to death. Why doesn’t Bharara airlift the parents and family of all the 1000 girls for witness protection.
The Indian diplomat shouldn’t be let off the hook, but there was no case of torture/murder/starvation of the maid. It was a case of misreading contracts, and should have been dealt with accordingly.
Sangeeta wanted USD4500 per month, with most money paid in India in cash to avoid taxes. She is the only victim, only honest soul.
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The most vitriol is coming from you Keith, and it harms the acceptability of your statements and position. Calm down, maybe someone will listen to what you are saying. Not sure what this has to do with Walmart – they comply with US law, or else are forced to by court order and penalty, and not after 20 years of litigation either. Also not sure what this has to do with jobs for people overseas who are employed in circumstances (no fire exits, labor hour regulations, etc) not permitted in the USA, Europe, Australia, etc, or at wage rates 1/10 or less than what manufacturers would have to pay for their skills in the USA. If you, Keith, were the largest shareholder in a garment design and sales company worth $500 million on the US stock exchanges then I feel assured you would also be employing Bangladeshi “slaves” whose life situation is better than those Bangladeshis who are NOT “slaves” but wish they were. If on the other hand those Bangladeshi’s were paid and treated according to USA laws and prevailing USA “slave wages” they would not be employed at all, and instead US citizens and permanent residents would get those same manufacturing jobs and be better off for it. If there is such a complexity of regulation, intrigue, deception, perjury and maltreatment, real or perceived, for Indian “slave” nanny’s then the “Creamy Layer” Dalit Ms Khobragade should have employed a fully English language fluent American National or permanent resident. I checked the nanny jobs listings on Craigslist for NYC and found this:
“Dec 16 Multi-lingual, educational Nanny needed for Early 2014 (100k) (Upper East Side) education/teaching” . Still no takers despite the $100,000 a year salary. Maybe not enough was offered? I’d say the Dalit Ms Khobragade would be getting a bargain at $4500 a month for a nanny in NYC.
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Perhaps you are not aware that the maid’s father-in-law was, and probably still is, a employee of the US Embassy. Also her mother worked at the home of a senior embassy official. It seems quite reasonable therefore to infer that this entire affair as far as the maid is concerned was choreographed from the beginning. The visa application form was filled up and submitted by the maid. Was the visa officer that brainless that he or she would approve a visa for the maid where her salary was projected to be higher or equal to that of her employer? Why was the visa issued under these circumstances? The less said about the politically ambitious DA the better – there is enough that has already been said about that. Add to that the interference by the US authorities in a, Indian judicial proceeding against the maid and her family.
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We all know that in India, when it comes to handling our “servants”, we are not exactly angels. One just has to scan the newspapers regularly to have ample proof of this. In most of rural India it is still the feudal mentality that holds sway. The crude arrogance of the “haves or higher caste folks” frequently manifests itself in the form of openly brutal attitude towards the so-called “lower class/caste”. Even in cities, we often see the so-called educated people addressing blue-collared subordinates in “tum/tu” terms, even if it is their first interaction. I see rich ladies in restaurants, with “ayas” looking after their babies, gorging on delicious food while the aya (mostly minor girls) remains just an onlooker. I agree that things are changing, but it is changing much too slowly.
But at the same time, I would like to say that the USA (and the West in general) is not full of angels! Racism may be illegal, but racist mentality still exists. Sometimes in the form of open arrogance and at times veiled under a layer of polite elitism (“holier than thou” – or – “we know everything better than you”). Especially, the “holier than thou” attitude makes them often think that the (relatively) rich Indian is always exploiting the (relatively) poor Indian – which, naturally, is not always true. Now, in this specific case, how do we then know that the Richard family is not trying to take advantage of this attitude of the US people (read “politicians and officials”) in order to be able to stay back in the US (a dream destination for many in India – rich or poor, educated or not!)? I think we should not jump to any conclusion right now but rather wait and watch.
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Although the issue of the exploitation of the domestic help by the diplomat is serious, as is the larger issue of how we treat our maids in India, it is entirely separate from the issue of US treatment of the Indian diplomat. The DA in the case, before arresting the diplomat, had charged Russian diplomats of defrauding the US health system. Were these Russian diplomats arrested, strip searched and cavity searched? No. So why was this treatment meted out to the Indian diplomat?
What makes matters worse is the evacuation of the family of Sangeeta Richard to the United States despite their being cases ongoing in courts in Delhi. The US DA actually justified this by saying that it was done to save the family from discrimination or some clap trap. Are we supposed to stand for this disrespect of Indian courts? On what basis does the US government think it can interfere in such a blatant manner on a domestic case? It is the same old ‘America stands for human rights and that’s why we can bomb you to bits’ kind of mentality.
It is totally unacceptable and unlike the author, i do not believe that India’s response was hysterical or emotionally or reactionary. It was completely justified. The problem is some ‘intellectuals’ with American tinted glasses refuse to see anything wrong with any American action. Apparently the American lobby in India has also entrenched itself in the intelligentsia. Pathetic.
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Read the above article by Godfrey Pereira..which made interesting reading…but one particular paragraph caught my eye..because it was about the author himself.
“My name is Godfrey Joseph Pereira. I was exploited, traumatized, lied to, threatened and laughed at by Indians in New York City in 1993-94. I tried to commit suicide from the physical and psychological battering I had to endure. I am living testimony that Indians abroad, rape the rights of their fellow men and women because they view new immigrants as being powerless cheap work mules”
Thanks for sharing this…..Godfrey! It takes courage and guts to tell the world what you went through as a new immigrant!
Congrats and here’s wishing you luck with your novel…”Bloodline Bandra”
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Pereira asks important questions as he reveals a painful personal perspective. That he was exploited by Indian nationals adds betrayal to the sad story. Apparently, it gave him insight into the “blame the victim” bent that seems to be taking place, at least in part. This twisted tactic turns a defense into an offense, ie. Richard is a liar. Richard is a spy etc. It is absolutely right to ask about Richard and how she suffered. I wonder too, where is the outrage?
Could the indictment of the Dalit Diplomat also feel like an indictment of Indians in the motherland who exploit others? Therefore guilt by association and a reaction of indignation along with the demand for apology from the US to India as if to justify their own questionable treatment of others? Should the exploitation of the weak by the powerful be common in India, it might explain why Richard and the American system has come under fire. Is a tight caste/class system built upon a system of privilege in which the strong exploit the underclass?
Writing as an American who currently resides in the US, I am nevertheless compelled to offer a bigger picture gained through international travel including nearly two years spent in India. To glimpse, therefore, through a global prism, there is blame enough to stretch round the globe. Capitalism works to put profit over all else. Currently, it seems to have reached the level of epidemic in which profit is made at the expense of workers who are left impoverished or crushed under the weight of slavery. Slavery, alive and well…what a disgrace; what a crime In America and way too many places worldwide. It is supra-national in a word, belonging to no single nation or nations. Globalization via corporate overlords have established export processing zones (EPZ’s) where people of all flavors are enslaved in many countries.. So whether it be one individual exploiting another, as with the Dalit Diplomat and the maid or a corporation working 1000’s to an early grave (often young women and girls) it is absolutely criminal. I have not, after considerable time and thought, found reason for a world with many Billionaires. Who can honestly earn that kind of wealth outside of a handful of inventors perhaps? Exploitation rules.
The thought of it takes me back to the memories of so many persons I met during my travel whom I shall never forget. I saw reflection in their eyes of a promised land, often America. Red, white and blue fevers raging in young people who stood in long queues at the USIS in Mumbai, all holding their breath for a better life. How can that ever be a crime? The crime lies in wait for these innocent, perhaps naïve, persons who are made vulnerable by poverty or lack of opportunity where they are at.
There is much about America alone that many do not understand. Let me start with a challenge to Pereira on his point about a living wage in the US. If one pays close attention, one can hear growing cries of many US workers (immigrants as well as US citizens) who are not getting a living wage. They are, indeed, getting the legal minimum wage, but not a life sustaining wage. Some US citizens and immigrants alike are kept working endless hours in two or three jobs only to fend off hunger and keep a roof over their heads, if they find jobs at all. Unions have been decimated. Workers lack health care for themselves and their children. Many have no sick leave so restaurant workers, for example, raise the risk of spreading illness and disease. Education is less achievable without the choice of taking on huge debt, in turn crowding the market for lower- paid, unskilled jobs. US jobs that have been outsourced to other countries are not even US jobs. Those jobs morph into endless work carried out in nightmare conditions the world has glimpsed when factories collapse or burn and many are killed. Think Bangladesh.
Like it or not, we need to look upon exploitation, no matter where it takes place, no matter who is to gain or profit. Yes, please keep the conversation going. Loud and raucous though it may be, it must be.
I hope Pereira has more to add to this conversation with his novel.
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Learn to separate wheat from chaff. This is not foreign policy debate. It is protection of rights of domestic workers under ILO directive and duty of countries to pass laws to to protect their rights. Right in Delhi, we have domestic workers from mostly Nepal and remote villages in India who are serving on “involuntary servitude”. They need protection of laws. It is their human rights. Let us not confuse the issue. It is not foreign policy issue. Foreign policy debate issues do not have any relevance in the trial of the exploiter in the NY court. Don’t talk foreign policy to the judge! He will throw you out of the court room. To say that the maid was paid decent wages by the consul is stupid. If you want services in NY, pay at NY rates. Period. Can you have a hearty meal in 5 star hotel in NY and pay at rates existing in tea shop in your remote village in India? Those who argue for Khobras dont get this. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein
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Deciding what is wheat and what is chaff seems to be also an issue. The whole debate on this affair seems to have been victim to the concerted effort of elements in the American ruling class and state apparatus, who would like to obfuscate the issue and shift the focus away from the extraordinarily illogical and inhuman arrest procedures of the American judicial system (which is where the public outcry/debate started) and turn the debate into a projection of the American state as some torchbearer of the oppressed – a projection most persons resident outside the US would find difficult to digest.
Many US residents however seem to have a naive faith, even pride, in the supposed “due process” and “equality” of its judicial system and the supposed “equal” implementation of its myriad laws, rules, and airport search protocols. (Supposed I say because, though I know of an ex-president named Abdul Kalam being strip-searched, I don’t yet know whether that other ex-president (and known predator) named Bill Clinton is similarly treated.) And even if one were to, for a moment, accept “equality”, it yet wouldn’t lend respectability to a system which “equally” brutalises all who it chooses to bring within its clutches. I for one would find it difficult to comprehend any justness or logic in a system of universal handcuffing, strip-searching and cavity-searching of detainees, other than deliberately and unnecessarily punishing a person, who is actually innocent until proved guilty. I find more sense in the reasoning in the Indian Supreme Court’s judgements on the question on handcuffing:
“Insurance against escape does not compulsorily require handcuffing. There are other measures whereby an escort can keep safe custody of a detenu without the indignity and cruelty implicit in handcuffs or other iron contraptions. Indeed, binding together either the hands or feet or both has not merely a preventive impact but also a punitive hurtfulness. Manacles are mayhem on the human person and inflict humiliation on the bearer. The three components of “irons” forced on the human person are: to handcuff i.e., to hoop harshly to punish humiliatingly and to vulgarise the viewers also. Iron straps are insult and pain writ large, animalising victim and keepers. Since there are other ways of ensuring safety as a
rule handcuffs or other fetters shall not be forced on the person of an under-trial prisoner ordinarily. As necessarily implicit in Articles 14 and 19, when there is no compulsive
need to fetter a person’s limbs it is sadistic, capricious, despotic and demoralizing to humble a man by manacling him. Such arbitrary conduct surely slaps Article 14 on the face. The animal freedom of movement, which even a detained is entitled to under Article 19, cannot be cut down cruelly by application of handcuffs or other hoops. lt will be unreasonable so to do unless the State is able to make out that no other practical way of forbidding escape is available, the prisoner being so dangerous and desperate and the circumstances so hostile to safe keeping.” [http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgst.aspx?filename=4535]
Preet Bharara on the other hand, while admitting to the handcuffing of Khobragade, does not even even attempt to provide any reasoning as to what was the need to do so. He obviously is duty bound to stand by all the illogicalities and inhumanities of the American law and can’t be expected to question. But do those posting and commenting here have to similarly restrict themselves?
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NEW YORK: An Indian diplomat accused of lying about how much she paid her housekeeper was indicted on Thursday on two criminal charges, though prosecutors told a judge that she had been granted diplomatic immunity and left the U.S.A earlier in the day.
That is exactly what Godfrey Pereira said would happen in the article. She would be granted Full Diplomatic Immunity finally; and she would leave, never to return. Why? First, because she is GUILTY. Second, It’s a diplomatic solution that both countries wanted. Now that she is gone, The U.S. and India can get back to where they were before this Dalit Diplomat legally violated the rights of a powerless fellow Indian. Devyani Khobragade exploited her maid Richard and then lied about it. One hopes that this is a lesson that all Indians will learn from. “Servants” are also human beings, who must be treated with respect, dignity and fairness. There are many Indians in India and abroad who seem to have forgotten this.
Good work Kafila . This is a Blog site that has credibility.
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Bob Marley did say “Stand up for your rights” Factually it’s the story of “Pot de Terre contre Pot de Fer” (the weak against the the strong) it has always been and will never change unfortunately!
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In order to save a consul from imprisonment in US jail for 15 years and 10 years in Indian jail,
{
Indian tax payer is going to pay $250,000 bond now.
Indian tax payer will pay the lawyer fees ($300-$450 an hour) now and for quite some time to come to Ms Khobra’s lawyer
Indian tax payer will pay the lawyer to fight the civil case for few millions of $ ( Earlier case of an Indian diplomat(posted in the same consulate ) was sentenced for $1.5 Millions in the same court. (
http://www.law.umich.edu/clinical/HuTrafficCases/Pages/CaseDisp.aspx?caseID=729http://cdp-ny.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Gurung.Judgment.pdf)
And finally, Indian tax payer will pay the civil penalty of $1.5 million or more!
}
And all the above are quite ethical as per the IFS lobby! You do not get to decide what is ethical, IFS lobby decides.
You just get busy writing mails in Linkedin in support of 5 beheaded soldiers and Capt Saurab Kalia for mutilated body and what have you.
American Law and Indian Law were both derived from English common law. How come a crime by American Law gets Ms Khobra 15 years RI and $1.5 million in fine
And Indian Law provides
Heroines welcome back, an additional Aadarsh flat ( in additions to 2 already) in order for standing upto American bully and standing for righteousness) and an all paid for life maid from the Indian Corps of Diplomatic Maids (ICDM) to be raised shortly to be used for BYOM ( Bring Your Own Maid program of MEA)!
William Blackstone, the author of “Commentries on Englis law” in 1771 wrote:
“Of great importance to the public is the preservation of this personal liberty; for if once it were left in the power of any the highest magistrate to imprison arbitrarily whomever he or his officers thought proper, (as in France it is daily practised by the crown,) there would soon be an end of all other rights and immunities. Some have thought that unjust attacks, even upon life or property, at the arbitrary will of the magistrate, are less dangerous to the commonwealth than such as are made upon the personal liberty of the subject. To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.”
He is stirring in his English grave learning how American and Indian Law both derived from the same English Law have diverged!
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