Washington: An online White House petition demanding the Obama Administration drop the visa fraud case against Devyani Khobragade has been launched here by a group of Indian-Americans who said the senior Indian diplomat's public humiliation hurts the sentiments of the community.
Protesting the manner in which India's Deputy Consul General was arrested on December 12 in New York, the online petition said there was perceptible animus in handling the arrest.
“Dr Khobragade was arrested as she came out of her daughter's school, handcuffed, strip-searched, body cavity searched, swabbed and kept in a lock up in spite of her assertions of immunity,” the petition said, adding that she is one of the faces of Indian government for the Indian community in the US.
“Her public humiliation injures the sentiments of the Indian-American community. Such incidents are bound to strain the Indo-US relations. We request that given the trauma and public humiliation that Dr Khobragade has egregiously suffered, the criminal case against her should be dropped immediately,” the online petition said.
Meanwhile, several experts questioned the decision of the US Government to arrest the 39-year-old diplomat on visa fraud case.
“There appears to be no question that the government acted legally, but there is a very big distinction between acting under the collar of your authority and doing what as a matter of foreign relations and common goods sense is wise,” Stephen Vladeck, professor at the American University College of law, told the NBC news in an interview.
“The treatment of the arrested Indian deputy consul general in New York was abominable. The Indian official is correct that, even with unfriendly countries, such actions are outrageous,” said M Gordon Jones, a former US Foreign Service official who was posted in New Delhi in 1990s.
