Oh, good grief:
An Indian diplomat said U.S. authorities subjected her to a strip search, cavity search and DNA swabbing following her arrest on visa charges in New York City, despite her "incessant assertions of immunity."
The case has sparked widespread outrage in India and infuriated the New Delhi government, which revoked privileges for U.S. diplomats to protest the woman's treatment. It has cast a pall over India-U.S. relations, which have cooled in recent years despite a 2008 nuclear deal that was hailed as a high point in the nations' ties.
Apparently, she doesn't have full diplomatic immunity and may have lied to our government about seriously underpaying an employee.
That said, a little handling with kid gloves would have been nice. She wasn't smuggling WMD components, after all.
And we do have a common interest in aligning to resist China and fight jihadis.
But the mistakes are not all on our side (apart from the facts of the case that sparked this spat):
India retaliated against U.S. diplomats with measures that include revoking diplomat ID cards that brought certain privileges, demanding to know the salaries paid to Indian staff in U.S. Embassy households and withdrawing import licenses that allowed the commissary at the U.S. Embassy to import alcohol and food.
Police also removed the traffic barricades near the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi in retaliation for Khobragade's treatment. The barriers were a safety measure but India said they clogged up traffic.
Seriously? India removed traffic barriers that I assume would keep car bombs from approaching too close? This is an appropriate response?
I can understand the first measures taken. Tit-for-tat, and all that. But compromising security?
Let's all hope that jihadis aren't in any position to quickly exploit this lowering of the guard around our embassy before tempers cool.
And I'd like to also point out that despite having an administration determined to restore our reputation abroad, relations with India and their 1.2 billion people have cooled in recent years after reaching a high point in 2008--during George W. Bush's term.
Just don't send Kerry to "help." We'll be at war with India in a fortnight if he focuses on it.
UPDATE: The strip search seems over the top. And the justification that any American would have to endure the same thing is more damning than a defense.
But are the Indians really going to defend a diplomat accused of exploiting an employee and damage relations with us?
The worker is said to have been paid just $3.31 an hour -- well below New York's required $7.25 -- despite signing a contract to pay her three times that amount for childcare and other services.
A photo of an Indian protester accompanying the article says we want to "humiliate Indians." Really? Isn't intervening on the behalf of the Indian employee being paid less than what the law requires and less than what the Indian diplomat claimed a defense of an Indian? Isn't paying that employee so little the real humiliation?
It seems like this was handled poorly on our part. And an apology over a strip and cavity search--if it happened--would be in order without admitting error in the charge itself.
But the Indian diplomat's cries of outrage over being caught exploiting a fellow Indian seems to be a strange case to confront America over, given the real humiliation taking place on a weekly basis over the line of actual control with China on their land border. Come on, India, we're friends and potential allies. Let's have a little self control on the cries of outrage, here.
