Americans Unlikely To Get Back Their Privileges Soon In India
In choosing to criminalise "a wage dispute with a domestic employee", the U.S. had ignored a pre-existing legal case in India with Khobragade as the first complainant against her housekeeper and nanny Sangeeta Richard.
The Indian embassy has reached out to lawmakers to make its position understood on the Capitol Hill.
India's new ambassador, S. Jaishankar, met key members of the India Caucus and House and Senate foreign affairs panels.
The overwhelming opinion on the Hill, according to officials in the know, was that "this should not have happened" and the U.S. officials who chose to act the way they did were "apparently not in the business of thinking how the next day's newspaper would look like".
Now that the crisis has been defused with Khobragade's return to India, the expectation is that "everybody realises the importance of the India-U.S. relations" and steps are initiated to put the relationship back on track in the weeks ahead.
As the Americans in Delhi pine for their booze, burgers and bowling after Jan 16, they would hopefully remember a lesson learnt that it takes two to make diplomacy work, say diplomatic officials, including diplomats from other countries who support the Indian action.
Read more:
Devyani No Longer Enjoys Immunity, May Face Arrest Warrant: U.S.
Devyani Khobragade Indicted For Visa Fraud, Leaves For India
Source: IANS