Washington: The repeated assertion by the U.S. that the arrest of an Indian diplomat on charges of visa fraud is an "isolated" incident and would not have an impact on its bilateral ties with India is "a case of wishful thinking", a former top Obama administration official has said.
"The talking point from the State Department podium has been that this case should be isolated from the broader India U.S. relationship. I think that that is a case of wishful thinking," former State Department spokesman P J Crowley said, noting that there was misjudgment on the part of both sides.
Crowley, who was the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs from May 2009 to March 2011, told PTI that the issue - that has now rocked the ties between the two countries - could have been handled much differently by both.
A 1999-batch IFS officer, Devyani Khobragade, India's Deputy Consul General in New York, was arrested on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid Sangeeta Richard. She was released on a $250,000 bond.
The 39-year-old diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of U.S. diplomats among other steps last month.
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