Condemning the ill-treatment meted out to Devayani Khobragade, a senior diplomat serving in the Indian Consulate General in New York by the US authorities, the All India Officers’ Forum and the Dalita Sthree Shakthi held a silent protest outside the US Consulate here on Monday.
It may be recalled that on Thursday, soon after the lady diplomat had left her daughter at school, she was handcuffed and whisked away by the New York police for her alleged visa fraud in hiring a domestic help from India.
Expressing their displeasure over the US government’s harsh treatment, the members of the Forum held placards that read “Is this your (American) culture, treating women in such a way” and “Big Brother (the US Government), don’t humiliate our sisters.”
It is really undemocratic of any nation that arrests a diplomat, who enjoys diplomatic immunity, in such way, Forum’s president N Siddoji Rao said. “We are extremely unhappy the way our woman diplomat has been treated in America. Is the US government ignorant of immunity that diplomats enjoy from getting arrested?” he asked.
The present incident brought to fore, the racial discrimination against Indians and more importantly against Dalits even in the US, as the diplomat in question belongs to Scheduled Caste and a Dalit woman rights activist, said G Shankar, secretary, Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Caste Association.
“It is rather true that India’s casteist system is being perpetuated by Indians living there in America. ,” he added.