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The Indian Ambassador to the U.S says the two countries still had

"clearly differing views on immunity".

Even as protestors raised ‘Stand with Sangeeta’ slogans steps

outside the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Indian

Ambassador to the U.S., S. Jaishankar, answered questions on the

Devyani Khobragade case from an audience within the building

saying that the former Indian Deputy Consul’s case was “already

under litigation in India and whatever happened here was an

attempt to supersede what was happening in India”.

Ms. Khobragade was indicted on two criminal charges and asked to

leave the country on January 9, 2014, after her domestic

employee, Sangeeta Richard, worked with the U.S. Justice

Department to build a case against the senior Indian diplomat

based on allegations of visa fraud and underpayment of wages.

In the context of Ms. Khobragade getting arrested on the streets of

New York and subsequently being strip-searched in the custody of

U.S. Marshals, Mr. Jaishankar said that instead of calling on Indian

diplomats to respect local laws in the U.S. he would instead

broaden the question to ask whether all diplomats should respect

all laws, including U.S. diplomats respecting Indian laws.

“That is an issue which is today under discussion,” he explained,

adding that India and the U.S. still had “clearly differing views on

immunity”. However the Ambassador emphasised that both he and

others he spoke to after taking up his post in Washington echoed

the sentiment that “this should not have happened”.

When asked about whether India could have taken any action to

avoid letting the situation become a full-blown crisis, especially

after receiving communication from the State Department in

September that charges may be made against Ms. Khobragade, Mr.

Jaishankar turned that question around too, pointing out that it

was India that had initially made preliminary contact with the U.S.

on the matter, in June 2013.

Speaking to The Hindu on Massachusetts Avenue outside the venue

of the Ambassador’s talk Tiffany Williams, an anti-trafficking

campaign coordinator of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

(NDWA) said, “We think that [diplomats] should be held accountable

to the same standards that we hold everyone to, which is to not

abuse and exploit people. What happened in Sange

unacceptable and we hope that the new Indian Ambassador will

take that to heart.”

Ms. Williams added that the NDWA and the umbrella trade union

group AFL-CIO, both of which were protesting outside the Carnegie

Endowment on Wednesday, were “really disappointed that India

chose not to waive immunity and instead moved [Ms. Khobragade]

to the United Nations where she was granted full immunity.” This

meant that Ms. Richard could not have her day in court, she

suggested.

Instead, Ms. Williams said, domestic workers all over the world

deserved rights and hoped that the Government of India would pass

legislation protecting domestic workers there and here.