Khobragade and the Chamber of Secrets

Am sure most of us have read enough on this issue. Am trying to add my two bits of wisdom.

Issue no 1: Devyani Khobragade was arrested on charges of violating US labor laws and Visa Fraud. She was handcuffed, strip searched and allegedly a body cavity search was also done. According to India this is not how a diplomat should be treated according to the Vienna Convention. India insists she has diplomatic immunity (US state department begs to differ), however it is clear that she was treated like a petty criminal. This is the most important issue currently.

Issue no 2: Kobragade's maid (Sangeeta Richards) was underpaid (as per US laws). When she complained, a case was filed against her family (including her) in Delhi. The High Court passed an order against her and for a short period of time her husband and son were detained (I could not come across any source which confirmed that they were arrested). This is a separate issue and I definitely feel that it should be investigated, if she (Richards) was illtreated then she deserves justice. But it should not be confused with issue no 1 nor should we form opinion basis this.

Issue no 3: There are allegations that Khobragade and her family illegally acquired properties across the country. They were also allocated a flat in the infamous Adarsh Housing Society despite the fact that they owned a property in a MHADA housing complex. Assuming for a second that this is true, how exactly does it make the allegations in Issue no 1 less serious is something I cant understand. And those who say that 'She deserved it because she is corrupt', I think you have extremely low IQ and cannot distinguish between issues.

Basis whatever I read on this subject, am drawing a few conclusions and have a few questions which I would like to ask the US and Indian governments.

 - Khobragade was mistreated, this was NOT in sync with her position and they way a foreign diplomat is to be treated in ANY country.
 - It is not very clear if this is she had complete diplomatic immunity (she was a Consular officer).
 - Her maid's passport was revoked by the Indian government and she is currently living in the USA illegally. As of now USA has not granted her formal asylum, so her status is illegal.
 - Khobragade did NOT submit any of the so called fraudulent documents personally, they were submitted by her maid in her visa application. The maid is claiming that Kobragade instructed her to lie and faisify documents.
 - There are reports that officers in the Russian embassy took part in a medical insurance scam, some of them were junior consular officers (as compared to Kobragade), however no action was taken against them by the US government.
 - Mr Preet Bharara believes that this falls under the category of a heinous crime,
 -  US government granted visas to Richards' family and made them come to America, so that they do not have to face persecution in the case filed against them in India. This is a blatant interference in India's internal issue. Mr Bharara goes a step further in justifying it.

Some Questions for the US Government:

1. One of the allegations against Khobragade is Visa Fraud and falsification of documents, what document did she falsify and submit to the US government?
2. Is violation of US labor laws is a heinous crime, under what category would you classify living illegally in USA? What actions have you taken in cases where you have discovered that a person has been staying illegally in USA for 5 months?
3. Have you in any previous instance granted visas to family members of people who have been staying illegally in the US to reunite them with their family?
4. As per the State Department, what is a greater crime: defrauding the money of US taxpayers through medical insurance schemes or paying low wages to a foreign national (which are much higher than the standard wages paid in Asia for such jobs)?
5. There are media reports that Richard Davies was granted full diplomatic status AFTER he murdered a pakistani citizen, still US insisted on full diplomatic immunity for him. Why exactly is the US State Department saying that since Khobragade has been given full diplomatic status after her arrest, it wont be considered?
6. Does the US government justify the act of assisting foreign nationals escape their country so that they do not have to stand trial in the cases filed against them in their home country?
7. A request was made to the State Department in September-2013, informing them that Sangeeta Richards' passport has been revoked, hence she should be extradited to India immediately, why was this request not honoured?
8. A complaint was lodged with NYPD by Khobragade against her maid claiming theft, was this investigated, if yes, what was the outcome?
9. There are a lot of Indian and Mexican workers in USA who are not paid as per US Labor laws, are all their employers arrested? Are all the families of these workers given US visas? If not, then why was Khobragade singled out for such treatment?

Questions for the Indian Government:

1. Was a full background check conducted on Khobragade before she was appointed to represent India in USA?
2. The State Department claims that India was informed 3 months ago about the case against Khobragade, what actions were taken at that time?
3. Why was Khobragade not given full diplomatic status 3 months ago, when GOI was made aware of this case, to prevent this into escalating into such a big mess?
4. If media reports are correct why were the husband and son on Sangeeta Richards detained / arrested by Delhi Police?
5. Why is there a disconnect in the statements made by the US State Department and Mr Salman Khurshid regarding a discussion between Mr John Kerry and Mr Khurshid?

The Unforgivable Sins

It is very hard for the citizens of India to like their government. In a country of a billion people there are bound to be many problems and it is impossible for any sort of leadership to address them effectively. I have been very vocal about my dislike for the present government and think it is the worst ever in the history of this country. My yardstick for comparison is the previous NDA regime and other Congress governments, none of the previous governments were perfect and they had their share of flaws but the sheer magnitude of screw ups and mistakes made by the present regime ensures that all previous instances of misgovernance in this country pale in comparison.

It is nearly impossible for me to write down various instances where the government has taken wrong decisions which are not in favour of the general well being of the people of this country. However, I would like to point out 5 simple areas where the government has failed us completely. These sins are unforgivable in my opinion and it will take a long time before any regime manages to undo the damage done by UPA here.

5. Mismanagement of Foreign Affairs: I am not even going to mention the episode where the idiotic foreign minister (Mr S M Krishna) read out the speech of his Portuguese counterpart by mistake at a UN gathering. It was just a silly mistake and does not compare to the huge blunders made by the UPA in all areas. With an aggressive China flexing its muscles all over Asia and Pakistan up to its usual tricks in Kashmir it makes sense for India to engage its traditionally friendly neighbors like Sri Lanka and Nepal with whom we have a shared history and heritage. We go ahead and vote against Sri Lanka despite a specific request from them to not interfere in their internal matters to keep the stupid old man from Tamil Nadu and his bunch of corrupt spoilt kids happy. We ignore Nepal and give mixed signals to its Maoist leadership and ensure that it embraces China and willingly allows its land to be used for anti-India activities. Even in Maldives, first we sit quietly when a hostile government takes over, we ignore the previous India-friendly regime which requests help and then we cry foul when the hostile government takes decisions which harm Indian interests.
Our foreign policy and be summed up in a single sentence: 'Clueless and corrupted by idiotic coalition compulsions'.

4. Rewarding mediocrity: Just 2 examples are more than enough to explain how we are endangering the future of this country by having such people in top offices.
Sushilkumar Shinde: Claims that he has 2 biggest qualifications to to be the Home Minister: 1. He is a Dalit and 2. He is loyal to the Gandhi family. Before becoming the Home Minister his main accomplishments were being involved in the Adarsh scam when he was the CM of Maharashtra and presiding over the biggest power failure in the country when he was the Power Minister.
Pratibha Patil: She has singlehandedly lowered the dignity of the highest constitutional seat in the country. From stealing artifacts to sponsoring free trips for her family members the lady has done it all. To add a nice cherry to the cake she pardoned mass murderers and child rapists while refusing to act on the petitions of known terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru who continued eating biryani at the taxpayers expense.

3. Punishing Protests: From beating up sleeping women and children in the anti-corruption protests to beating up students in the protests in the Delhi gangrape case our government has matched several other countries like China and North Korea in snatching away democratic rights of the citizens. To top it all NSUI goons hijack the protests and the government ensures that the news of 'students' meeting Sonia Gandhi and she promising to take strict action is plastered all over the media. Simply put the UPA government has mastered the art of killing popular protests by using every dirty trick in the book. Anna, Kejriwal and the students protesting the rape have all been effectively marginalized.

2. Unparalleled Corruption:  Let me first state that I do not think that there has ever been a completely honest government in this country and I don't expect it in another 50 years. The problem here is that that not only is this government completely corrupt, it is also shameless and arrogant. It laughs at you in the face and says that 'we will continue looting you, do whatever you can'. People like Sibal and Chidambaram mock the CAG and the people of this country by claiming that there has been no wrongdoing in various scams and no public money has been lost. Time and again the world laughs at us because of our greedy politicians. From screwing up the Commonwealth games to selling away precious natural resources of this country taxpayers are being taken for a ride everyday. But apart from indulging in large-scale corruption in the name of stupid schemes like NREGA, Right to Food and Direct Cash subsidy our government actively shields corrupt alliance partners by calling off the IT and CBI teams whenever they get too close for comfort. Using these teams as a tool to achieve their devious means is another topic which we should discuss in detail sometime.

1. 26 /11: I stay in Mumbai and this attack took place a stones throw away from where I work. I visit these places regularly and I was lucky that I was not at CST station that night. I am not blaming the government for the attack, I am blaming them for what happened after the attack. Apart from hanging Kasab after protecting him and feeding him on our expense for 2 years there is almost nothing the government has done to secure justice. Forget securing justice, none of the promises made 3 years ago about having an elite anti terrorism squad or enhanced security have been fulfilled. And to add insult to injury we invite the leaders of the country which did this to our country and gush about their designer bags. Our response to almost every terror attack which has taken place in this country has been lame-duck. It follows a simple 3 stage process formulated by the Congress think tank. 1. Strongly condemn the attack 2. Make promises to retaliate 3. Blame internal elements or the RSS for the problem and go back to looting the country.
My home was attacked, the attackers still roam free in their country and threaten me again and again on TV. My leaders address them using salutations which denote respect (Ji or Sahab). My leaders ignore my protests and need for security because they want the entire police force to protect them and their family. My leaders also make idiotic statements from time to time on TV which makes my attackers happy and tweet their concurrence. Should I be angry? I risk getting arrested if I express my anger on Facebook or Twitter.

What I expect from my Government

I keep ranting on twitter about the bad state of governance in the country and criticize almost everything which our Congress led government does. Some people say that I hate the government just for the sake of hating it. Maybe its because of a deep rooted bias against the Congress in my mind. The idea to write this post came to me after having a conversation with a some friends and colleagues who generally had no clue what would they expect from a government except for the usual need for less corruption and economic development.

I am a very practical person, I know corruption cannot be eradicated from our country. I am guilty of bribing several government officials many times in the past and wont shy away from it in the future if it means my work gets done faster. A small service charge or a facilitation fee is not the problem according to me, the problem is at the highest levels where taxpayer money is being squandered on frivolous schemes and shady deals which benefit a few corrupt politicians. With this post I am trying to clarify what exactly do I expect my elected representative to do t make my life better. These are the issues on which I will go out and vote.

At Municipality level:
The lesser I expect from the BMC the better it is for me. A useless organization full or idiotic people working for it in my opinion. My expectations can be summarized in just 2 points:
 - Better Roads 
 - Cleanliness

At State Level:
I do not want to sound pro-BJP or pro-Modi here but since my dads family is from Gujarat I have no other state to use as a reference. I used to hate going to my village when I was a kid. It used to have power cuts for 10-12 hours, no roads, 2-3 televisions in the entire village and water for just 4 hours a day. In comparison my house in Mumbai had 24 hour electricity, excellent approach roads and 24 hours water. Today after 15 years when I compare my village to my city, my village has decent approach roads, 24 hours electricity and water, excellent cellphone and cable connectivity. My house in Mumbai has a really bad approach road which is full of potholes, we have electricity round the clock but for the past 3 summers there have talks of a power cut due to the bad power problem in my state and we get water only for 4 hours a day (supplied by BMC, building has a water tank so no real problem). It is very difficult to ignore the progress made by my village which has a population of a thousand people against the steadily deteriorating quality of life in my city. 6 simple things which I expect from my state government are:
 - A solution to the power problems in Maharashtra
 - A solution to the water problem in Maharashtra (both irrigation and drinking water)
 - Ability to assure citizens of their safety and continuance of business during sensitive situations (riots, deaths etc)
 - Better educational infrastructure in the state
 - A responsible and friendly police force whom the citizens are not afraid to approach.
 - Reduce duties on petrol and diesel.

At National Level:
My wishlist is really really long here. It is very difficult to support one political party because on many issues all of them have the same regressive views (reservations, caste based politics etc). I have tried to be as objective and practical as possible in shortlisting the below mentioned issues which I think should be the topmost priority for any government which comes to power in the Centre.
 - Focus on development of infrastructure (Highways, Canals, Ports, Airports).
 - A foreign policy which is focused on preserving our national interests and  not influenced by idiotic concerns of allies.
 - A will to fight both internal and external terror and not politicize the issue.
 - Fair and transparent allocation of national resources like oil, gas and airwaves.
 - Rationalization of stupid schemes like NREGA, Food Security Bill and Direct Cash Transfer.
 - No more reservation on the lines of caste or religion. Affirmative action basis economic status.
 - Modify or repeal regressive laws which curb freedom of speech and expression.
 - Ensure sufficiency in foodgrains and not allow our food to rot in government godowns.

These are just a few basic things which I would want my leader to look at. I would be willing to give my vote  to any national leader who is committed to focus on these issues. What I have seen till date is the absolute failure of the current UPA government on all the above fronts both in Delhi and in Maharashtra. Some leaders from the opposition have repeatedly spoken about a few of these issues, it remains to be seen if they can translate their words into action. As of now I am inclined to give a chance to these leaders who are at least talking about the right things rather than trust a government which has repeatedly ignored all the above issues for the past 8 years.