India-US relations: cooling and warming up (merged thread)

[Ray]

India's ###-for-tat forces US ambassador Nancy Powell to call off Nepal vacation?

NEW DELHI: US ambassador Nancy Powell had a first-hand experience of India's ire as officials here politely declined to accord her special airport privileges for her Christmas vacation to Nepal.

The government had on December 19 - a week after the arrest of diplomat Devyani Khobragade — withdrawn all special airport passes to the US diplomats that allowed them access to several places at the airport not just while travelling but also for receiving and seeing off guests. It said this was a reciprocal measure as Indian diplomats were not given the same passes in the US. .....

After receiving a communication from the US Embassy about Powell's plan to travel to Nepal, the government declined to accord her any special privileges as her airport pass stood withdrawn. The ambassador's special pass came with a photo identity card unlike the "floating passes" reserved for junior diplomats. The withdrawal of the pass means that Powell will have to travel like an ordinary passenger. She will be forced to stand in a queue and also lend herself to routine frisking by security personnel.

Sources said Powell will not get any privilege in India that her Indian counterpart in the US doesn't get. The government justified this saying that Indian ambassador to the US too travels like an ordinary person. Officials cited the example of the then Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar, who was subjected to a public pat-down by security officials at Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi in 2010. She was subjected to a secondary screening by security officials despite Shankar having presented her diplomatic credentials. India's envoy to the UN Hardeep Puri was also detained at Houston airport in Texas after he refused to take his turban off......

The US continues to seek more time for submitting details sought by India, including salaries paid to all Indian staff employed at the US consulates, citing Christmas and New Year vacations. They have also not filed the details of salaries paid to Indian staff and others in their schools in Delhi and Chennai.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/i...w/28023263.cms

An Indian government official said on Friday that New Delhi had asked the US embassy to provide details about people working in American schools and other US government facilities to determine if they had permission to do so and if they were paying taxes that are mandatory under Indian law.

Diplomats' spouses who take up work in schools or other embassy facilities are supposed to inform the host country.

Violations of this kind had often been ignored, but now India would not turn a blind eye, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...campaign=cppst


The whole issue is souring relations especially when it was getting better all the time.

[carl]

Ray:

If the Indians cut down the imperial trappings of American diplomats in India, I for one am all for it.

I have a story about that. Years ago the Chinese Ambassador came to the city I was police officering in and I was appointed the state's security detail to him. Little old me, a force of 1 to guard him and his entourage, which consisted of his wife and one other guy. And I went home when he went to bed. I showed up the next morning to find he was out taking a morning stroll by himself. He arrived in the state via commercial airline and was driven around in a rental car. All in all I thought that was all pretty cool and he and his entourage were very gracious to me. That was cool too. So anyway if the ambassador from a country of a billion people can do things plain I don't see why our people in India can't do things plain too, even if they have to be nudged a little.

(One of the Chinese guys, some kind of press attache, who met the Ambassador at the airport but was not part of his entourage turned out to be a real honest to goodness Red Chinese spy. He later got caught crashing through a fence at a national lab in a car. Maybe he wasn't such a good spy.)

[Ray]

Whatever.

This spat has really upset the Indians and they are livid.

Not a good thing to happen just when things were warming up.

[carl]

Ray:

Long term this will have no effect on US-Indian relations. Our interests are just too closely aligned. Red China, freedom of navigation and the possibility of Pak army nukes going walkabout easily trump this.

That said things will be roiled for awhile. It is my opinion that over here, to the extent this is viewed at all it is viewed as some rich b---h throwing her weight around and picking on a poor person. There will be very little sympathy for that.

[Ray]

Ray:

Long term this will have no effect on US-Indian relations. Our interests are just too closely aligned. Red China, freedom of navigation and the possibility of Pak army nukes going walkabout easily trump this.

That said things will be roiled for awhile. It is my opinion that over here, to the extent this is viewed at all it is viewed as some rich b---h throwing her weight around and picking on a poor person. There will be very little sympathy for that.

In the long term it will affect the US India relationship.

India is livid.

Red China is an issue with India, but then one never knows if the US action that it has taken violating international conventions will create some sort of an understanding with China and Russia.

It is not a rich b throwing her weight against a poor person. The poor person is another street smart scum who is aware how to make the US do gooders jump to her side, so as to manipulate a US citizenship - the Holy Grail that all the lower income group of India years to achieve.

Read this please:

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes...-nri-prejudice

TO be frank, the bon homie and the growing fondness of the US in India seems to have evaporated with this case.

We, in India, are aware of how people try all sorts of tricks, including getting married to US/ UK citisnes to divorce later, just to get into US/ UK and get a citizenship.

All aid and done, opportunities to eke an existence are greater and easier in western countries than in India.

One should see the huge number of 'care givers' who go to Canada and elsewhere. They hang around and they get the citizenship.

Western countries, for reasons best known to them, go out of their way in the game of 'political correctness', turning a blind eye to the reality of the ground situation.

Also read this:

http://articles.economictimes.indiat...-narendra-modi

It indicates that the US has scant regards for foreign court adjudicating on their own citizens.

All I can say is that the US has not read the tea leaves right and it is indeed sad situation for those who rooted for the US in India.

The fear is the reversal to the old days that may happen if this spat is not sorted out quickly.

[Ray]

Devyani case: Strong Indian response shocks US officials

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/devyani-c.../442250-3.html

[Ray]

A special group in India’s foreign ministry meets tomorrow to scrutinise the wages. US missions and envoys’ homes are treated as American territory. The missions have missed a December 23 deadline to furnish the wage details, sought in the wake of diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s arrest on wage-linked charges related to a nanny.

Information with the ministry suggests Indian cooks and drivers at US missions were paid Rs 12,000-15,000 per month, the sources said. That is around $200-$250, below the figure of $1,160 based on the New York minimum wage of $7.25 per hour that Khobragade is accused of not paying.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/113123...p#.UsGlDPQW3Kc

India's unusual tough stand on the arrest of its diplomat Devyani Khobragade has forced the US to initiate an "inter-agency review" to look into the lapses that happened in the high-profile case that triggered an uproar in India and strained bilateral ties.....

"An inter-agency review is going on right now to look into the lapses that happened in the case," sources told PTI.

In a tacit acknowledgement of the fact that there was a "judgemental error" in handling this case, sources said the inter-agency team led by the State Department is "working 24X7" to get it resolved as quickly as possible.

Now that the matter has landed up in the judiciary, a lot depends on the judges too - for which the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York is being actively engaged.

It is believed that the Department of Defense has expressed its displeasure over the manner in which the entire issue was handled.

http://articles.economictimes.indiat...s-relationship