On a day the Prime Minister described the US action against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade barbaric, comes news that the husband of Sangeeta Richard, the domestic help who had disappeared and her two children have got valid US visas and boarded an Air India flight to the United States. Why did the US give them this visa when there were specific Indian concerns that Sangeeta Richard was looking to illegally migrate to the US?
Meanwhile, Devyani Khobragade has been posted to India's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, a step which may guarantee her diplomatic immunity. The allegation against Ms Khobragade, the Deputy Consul General in New York, is that she broke visa rules by bringing in Sangeeta Richard who she paid below US minimum wages. For this offence, the Indian diplomat was handcuffed, strip searched, DNA swabbed, and put into a cell with drug addicts. US enforcement authorities say this was standard procedure. India says this is a grave violation of the Vienna convention and a complete outrage.
