There are some comments on Devyani's backward caste and her corruption and her case in NY regarding the maid's salary. It is really surprising how frustrated these upper caste people to see even a very few lower caste people getting advanced to higher positions. They just attack the reservation system though it doesn't make any sense in what they are talking. Lets take the Devyani's arrest in NY. How the reservation system is related to Devyani's case? Would that be okay if Devyani is from upper caste and the rest of the things took the same course as happened now? To those who are attacking Devyani for her lower caste, it seems to be okay for them with the IFS officials exploiting the maids as long as they belong to upper caste. In fact that is what happening for thousands of years, the upper caste exploiting the lower caste, and it is one kind of corruption! Surprisingly, Devyaini was arrested, but not Neena Malhotra for similar case and some others before that! Either it is USA or India, if you belong to lower race or caste, the higher your position, the loner you get because you will see more and more whiter race or upper caste. You need to be more aggressive if you belong to lower race or caste to survive in that position. Who knows, if Devyani belonged to upper caste, probably she might not have been arrested by using her upper caste NY Indian connections! If Mr.Barara is right in every way, how come she is back so easily? I am not saying what Devyani has done is right. But she belongs to and reflects the group that wants to change its position from being exploited to the exploiter! May be by doing that she wants to forget that her family hailed from that background that her maid belongs now! Who knows she was being targeted by the whole ring of upper caste colleagues to fix her up in this position? Otherwise how come she is the only criminal/victim of this continuous practice of IFS officials taking the Band Baja Barat wherever they go? If we want to speculate, there are so many things and ways to speculate! So, lets stick to the guns where they should be targeted.
Friday, 17 January 2014
Thursday, 19 December 2013
What is the Procedure in Sending Diplomatic Personnel to Another Country?
The recent ruckus over Ms.Khobragade's arrest opened Pandora box of questions on how the system works in sending the diplomatic personnel to different country. Everyone knows countries exchange and value diplomatic relations. But what happens exactly when we send a person to another country? In India, those who want to work in embassies and consulates need to go through some examinations and other selection process. After that what happens? How clean their record should be? Can someone involved in a scam or corruption charges (Ms.Khobragade seems to be involved in Adarsh housing scam) also get posting to some key locations such as USA?
What kind of salaries, perks, allowances they can get? Can these personnel take their own personnel like chauffeurs, cooks and servants? How many and who pays for them? What kind of visa process that needs to bring these people to abroad? Are these personnel's personnel also considered as a government employees? Or, are they considered as private employees? If it is private employment, who takes the responsibility of these private employees for their welfare in case of mistreatment by their employer, salary, and health emergencies? What kind of rules and regulations apply on these employees in a foreign country? In case of USA that is in the news recently, Ms.Khobragade is arrested for fake documents produced by her domestic help/nanny for visa purpose. It is not clear from the news channels or the news papers, whose role is what in this row. If Ms.Khobragade's nanny's salary and work hours come under the scrutiny of US labor laws, does that mean, Ms.Khobragade is considered as an employer in USA? Do they both have to submit tax forms to US federal and State governments? Do they have to produce salary slips or some kind of official documents on the payments? Who checks them in USA? If they check, do they do it right away after these employees landed there? If Ms.Khobragde is immune to arrest in the USA, why does she have to produce any kind of documents (especially salary payments) for visa purpose for her domestic help?
When we exchange these diplomats and other personnel, do we follow the exact reciprocation? If the other country is stronger and mightier than us, do we treat them differently than they treat us? Especially, in USA case, the strongest country on earth, what kind of exceptions we give them and they to us? Should it be secret that their respective citizens also kept in dark? Is there a chance these reciprocation can go beyond official? Too many questions and no one knows where to get answers. Since it is already in the news for wrong or right reasons, lets ask the news channels to bring out the real information on the diplomatic ties rather than re-running the same clip of barricades being removed from the outside of the US embassy in Delhi.......
What kind of salaries, perks, allowances they can get? Can these personnel take their own personnel like chauffeurs, cooks and servants? How many and who pays for them? What kind of visa process that needs to bring these people to abroad? Are these personnel's personnel also considered as a government employees? Or, are they considered as private employees? If it is private employment, who takes the responsibility of these private employees for their welfare in case of mistreatment by their employer, salary, and health emergencies? What kind of rules and regulations apply on these employees in a foreign country? In case of USA that is in the news recently, Ms.Khobragade is arrested for fake documents produced by her domestic help/nanny for visa purpose. It is not clear from the news channels or the news papers, whose role is what in this row. If Ms.Khobragade's nanny's salary and work hours come under the scrutiny of US labor laws, does that mean, Ms.Khobragade is considered as an employer in USA? Do they both have to submit tax forms to US federal and State governments? Do they have to produce salary slips or some kind of official documents on the payments? Who checks them in USA? If they check, do they do it right away after these employees landed there? If Ms.Khobragde is immune to arrest in the USA, why does she have to produce any kind of documents (especially salary payments) for visa purpose for her domestic help?
When we exchange these diplomats and other personnel, do we follow the exact reciprocation? If the other country is stronger and mightier than us, do we treat them differently than they treat us? Especially, in USA case, the strongest country on earth, what kind of exceptions we give them and they to us? Should it be secret that their respective citizens also kept in dark? Is there a chance these reciprocation can go beyond official? Too many questions and no one knows where to get answers. Since it is already in the news for wrong or right reasons, lets ask the news channels to bring out the real information on the diplomatic ties rather than re-running the same clip of barricades being removed from the outside of the US embassy in Delhi.......
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Brawl over Indian Diplomat Arrest
When I was doing my Masters in Albany, NY, I got a chance to work as an intern in a federal govt. office. That was my first job in USA. I met a girl who also joined as an intern with me in that office. She was an undergraduate engineering student from RPI, a single mother of a small baby at that time and has no one to take care of the little one. The father of the baby was also RPI student with promising future but turned out to be a drug addict which made her to get a restraining order on him. Her mother is a Jamaican immigrant, lived in Florida and she is no help for her daughter. We became friends, and soon I found out how much she struggles with her studies, baby, work, time, and a student loan. She used to live pay-check to pay-check. Of course she used to have a typical American standard life by having a car, care-taker for the baby, cell phone in addition to a land line phone and an internet at home. She used to get $10 per hour and I, lesser than that-not because I am Indian, just because of the contractual agreements between that office and our respective schools. She used to pay +/- $7 per hour to the care-taker of the baby. So, for every hour she used to work in the office, she used to make only $3 or less because she won't be paid for the time she spends on driving to drop her daughter off and pick her up. It was hard on her but it never occurred to her to think of looking for some illegal immigrant who would charge less. She knows that the other woman who is taking care of her child needs to live a similar life like herself!! Why I remembered this?
I saw a news online about the Indian Diplomatic official's arrest in NY. The complaint is that she encouraged her domestic help to lie about her salary in the visa office. Currently there is a big drama that is going on in Delhi, and the media is cashing it every bit!! The Indian Foreign Service (one of the remnants of colonial system that still hangs on to the good old feudal thinking and enjoys the frills of it) official Ms. Devyani Khobargade is arrested in NY in the public eye with hand cuffs on the charges of helping her domestic help to submit fake documents on the salary that is to be paid by the said official for US visa purpose......... As per IBNLive, the nanny is paid $573 per month. If you ask anyone who maintains a domestic help in India, how much money it is, they would say it is too much for her work. Because they only pay a fraction of it to their servants in India. But no one bothers to count how much work she has to do for that money. As per the Indian middle class norms, no one should bother about it!! It is understood obviously-the work is for countless hours......They take aback if you say the servants have rights too...........
So much noise is being made regarding the arrest and it is hard to figure out why is that noise actually? Here, we need to separate the two things-what this official has done to get a visa for her domestic help, and how she has been treated for the crime she has been arrested for.....
Lets see the first part. We all know that everyone needs a US visa to get to US soil and it is a very stringent process. You need to show so much evidence that you are actually 'you' and whatever you say is absolute truth. No misgivings! In such a situation, the domestic help of Ms. Khobragade lies about her salary she was going to get from her employer-Ms.Khobragade. In fact, Ms.Khobragade must have lied about how much she was going to pay to her domestic help/nanny, because she has to give an employment letter to the nanny to apply in the visa office. In such a case, as in normal situations of US labor laws, Ms.Khobragde should be arrested, as some Indian companies/nationals faced the arrests for bringing Indians to US with fraudulent papers. But, in India the uproar is that Ms.Khobragade is immune to arrest because she is a diplomat. All the politicians and media are making so much noise, but no one is keen to know the details of the case.......Is it allowed by the Govt. of India that the IFS officials to take a domestic help along with them? From the reimbursement of the salary by the GoI paid by Neena Malhotra (who was also entangled in the exactly same kind of situation), to her maid, it seems it is allowed!! If it is so, does Indian Govt. have any regulations on how many hours work for how much pay these domestic help should get? Probably not!! Since these IAS, IFS and IPS are considered as noble (the Indian Royalty), their services to India are considered as a blessing, those who work for them should feel the same way, especially if you are a servant!! You should not ask lowly questions like how much they pay to their servants...... Please consider, being servant to these people itself is a gift!!.....In such a case, the GoI should have an agreement with US govt. about these privileges to IFS officials and ask them to give visa to the domestic help without looking into their salary slips. (The Indian politicians are opening up about how India gives visas to same sex couples and partners of US diplomats though India doesn't recognize these relationships). It seems the US govt. does not allow it, and that is the reason, these officials produce fake documents about the servants' salaries.......... For anyone who has even a bit common sense, this whole thing seems larger than being fishy........ What is the Indian Govt. role in the whole process of hiring the domestic help and taking them to abroad? Are we saying, as Govt. of India, we are faltered and we take responsibility for the fake documents? If so, how the US Govt. will punish the Indian Govt. for lying? Or, are we saying that the hiring process happens at the individual level and we are not responsible for the fake documents but the IFS official herself? Either way, it is surprising to read some of the comments by the anonymous IFS official and the Ex-Minister of External Affairs. Both are meaning almost the same-The US labor laws are ridiculous since the payments of the Indian IFS officials are much lower than the US FS officials and that is the reason they can't pay to those they hire the same amount as it required by US labor laws......
Really??, lets see.....from the online info, Ms. Khobragade's salary while she is in US is around four lakh rupees. It is around $6000 per month (She doesn't pay taxes in US) and she lives in a posh apartment in NY. In NY, a posh apartment's rent costs around $3000 per month. So, for just one person income she is making around $8000-$9000 per month without paying taxes. Other perks are allowed. Just see, how many highly qualified immigrants in USA get that kind of salary to take home? Even from NY standards, it is a very good income!! And those New Yorkers who are taking home that kind of salary, are they not hiring any nannies, cleaning services (you can hire them per hour) or care takers in NY? Are they really living hand to mouth with that kind of salary? I can surely tell, they are not!! Then why not Ms.Khobragade? Why can't she hire all the help she needed in NY itself? We don't know if her husband is working there or not. If he does, then it should be more easy for her to hire people with extra income, if he is not, then why should she need a permanent help in the house? Why can't he take care of his own household like the other husbands sitting at home? Why do we have to encourage this kind of fraudulent practices when it is not necessary?
The only reason we can see here is that we are so habituated to exploit voiceless people. Just see how solemn Mr.Shashi Tharoor in his statement about this hiring the domestic help for one salary and producing different documents for US visa purpose!! He says "....we really need to negotiate a different arrangement under which the domestic staff of diplomats who are there to assist the diplomats to perform their representational functions must be given a different kind of status from some aspiring worker in the American job market. These are not in American job market, these are very often family retainers of the diplomats who work with them in number of countries and who have gone with them because they know the family, they know the culture, they know the cuisine, and they have to cook and serve and so on....and thats why they are there. so its absurd of the US to apply their laws in this manner and its unfortunate that we have not been able to negotiate with them an agreement that treats these people in a different way, that they should be treated as if they are part of the diplomatic staff of the mission like peons, chauffeurs and domestic help of diplomats who are there for diplomatic purposes and I think they ought to be treated very differently....at the moment, its not". What does that mean any way? That the domestic staff are going to get the salaries and perks like the officials do? or does that mean the diplomats can hire these domestic help for peanuts but they should be given immunity for visa purposes and never look at them even from the window to see how these domestic help are being treated? It is ironic how neither the officials nor the so called Patriotic Indians seem to worry about the whole practice of lying to another govt. when it clearly says it is wrong.....Lets think that Ms.Richards is trying to blackmail Ms.Khobragade, but isn't it Ms.Khobragade started it by getting signature on two different sets of documents? It seems Ms.Richards family members working with different Embassy officials. How could Ms.Khobragade underestimate Ms.Richards' intelligence or was she just being callous in abiding the law? Its no point of bringing all the fault practices of US to defend ourselves. If we think they are doing something wrong, lets point it out rather than following it in some other way. Two wrong things don't become one right thing!!
The second issue about the arrest.......we don't know who acted in what role in this arrest process...Based on the Indian news papers and news channels, Ms.Khobragade was handcuffed in public eye. We can't expect anything more, since the law enforcement officials in USA act very ruthlessly with anyone they are supposed to arrest. Ms. Khobragade is not going to runaway, then why so much force? It seems the US officials need to explain their actions in the arrest process and the treatment of Ms.Khbragade, so as the Indian Govt. in involving directly or indirectly in producing the fake documents!!
I saw a news online about the Indian Diplomatic official's arrest in NY. The complaint is that she encouraged her domestic help to lie about her salary in the visa office. Currently there is a big drama that is going on in Delhi, and the media is cashing it every bit!! The Indian Foreign Service (one of the remnants of colonial system that still hangs on to the good old feudal thinking and enjoys the frills of it) official Ms. Devyani Khobargade is arrested in NY in the public eye with hand cuffs on the charges of helping her domestic help to submit fake documents on the salary that is to be paid by the said official for US visa purpose......... As per IBNLive, the nanny is paid $573 per month. If you ask anyone who maintains a domestic help in India, how much money it is, they would say it is too much for her work. Because they only pay a fraction of it to their servants in India. But no one bothers to count how much work she has to do for that money. As per the Indian middle class norms, no one should bother about it!! It is understood obviously-the work is for countless hours......They take aback if you say the servants have rights too...........
So much noise is being made regarding the arrest and it is hard to figure out why is that noise actually? Here, we need to separate the two things-what this official has done to get a visa for her domestic help, and how she has been treated for the crime she has been arrested for.....
Lets see the first part. We all know that everyone needs a US visa to get to US soil and it is a very stringent process. You need to show so much evidence that you are actually 'you' and whatever you say is absolute truth. No misgivings! In such a situation, the domestic help of Ms. Khobragade lies about her salary she was going to get from her employer-Ms.Khobragade. In fact, Ms.Khobragade must have lied about how much she was going to pay to her domestic help/nanny, because she has to give an employment letter to the nanny to apply in the visa office. In such a case, as in normal situations of US labor laws, Ms.Khobragde should be arrested, as some Indian companies/nationals faced the arrests for bringing Indians to US with fraudulent papers. But, in India the uproar is that Ms.Khobragade is immune to arrest because she is a diplomat. All the politicians and media are making so much noise, but no one is keen to know the details of the case.......Is it allowed by the Govt. of India that the IFS officials to take a domestic help along with them? From the reimbursement of the salary by the GoI paid by Neena Malhotra (who was also entangled in the exactly same kind of situation), to her maid, it seems it is allowed!! If it is so, does Indian Govt. have any regulations on how many hours work for how much pay these domestic help should get? Probably not!! Since these IAS, IFS and IPS are considered as noble (the Indian Royalty), their services to India are considered as a blessing, those who work for them should feel the same way, especially if you are a servant!! You should not ask lowly questions like how much they pay to their servants...... Please consider, being servant to these people itself is a gift!!.....In such a case, the GoI should have an agreement with US govt. about these privileges to IFS officials and ask them to give visa to the domestic help without looking into their salary slips. (The Indian politicians are opening up about how India gives visas to same sex couples and partners of US diplomats though India doesn't recognize these relationships). It seems the US govt. does not allow it, and that is the reason, these officials produce fake documents about the servants' salaries.......... For anyone who has even a bit common sense, this whole thing seems larger than being fishy........ What is the Indian Govt. role in the whole process of hiring the domestic help and taking them to abroad? Are we saying, as Govt. of India, we are faltered and we take responsibility for the fake documents? If so, how the US Govt. will punish the Indian Govt. for lying? Or, are we saying that the hiring process happens at the individual level and we are not responsible for the fake documents but the IFS official herself? Either way, it is surprising to read some of the comments by the anonymous IFS official and the Ex-Minister of External Affairs. Both are meaning almost the same-The US labor laws are ridiculous since the payments of the Indian IFS officials are much lower than the US FS officials and that is the reason they can't pay to those they hire the same amount as it required by US labor laws......
Really??, lets see.....from the online info, Ms. Khobragade's salary while she is in US is around four lakh rupees. It is around $6000 per month (She doesn't pay taxes in US) and she lives in a posh apartment in NY. In NY, a posh apartment's rent costs around $3000 per month. So, for just one person income she is making around $8000-$9000 per month without paying taxes. Other perks are allowed. Just see, how many highly qualified immigrants in USA get that kind of salary to take home? Even from NY standards, it is a very good income!! And those New Yorkers who are taking home that kind of salary, are they not hiring any nannies, cleaning services (you can hire them per hour) or care takers in NY? Are they really living hand to mouth with that kind of salary? I can surely tell, they are not!! Then why not Ms.Khobragade? Why can't she hire all the help she needed in NY itself? We don't know if her husband is working there or not. If he does, then it should be more easy for her to hire people with extra income, if he is not, then why should she need a permanent help in the house? Why can't he take care of his own household like the other husbands sitting at home? Why do we have to encourage this kind of fraudulent practices when it is not necessary?
The only reason we can see here is that we are so habituated to exploit voiceless people. Just see how solemn Mr.Shashi Tharoor in his statement about this hiring the domestic help for one salary and producing different documents for US visa purpose!! He says "....we really need to negotiate a different arrangement under which the domestic staff of diplomats who are there to assist the diplomats to perform their representational functions must be given a different kind of status from some aspiring worker in the American job market. These are not in American job market, these are very often family retainers of the diplomats who work with them in number of countries and who have gone with them because they know the family, they know the culture, they know the cuisine, and they have to cook and serve and so on....and thats why they are there. so its absurd of the US to apply their laws in this manner and its unfortunate that we have not been able to negotiate with them an agreement that treats these people in a different way, that they should be treated as if they are part of the diplomatic staff of the mission like peons, chauffeurs and domestic help of diplomats who are there for diplomatic purposes and I think they ought to be treated very differently....at the moment, its not". What does that mean any way? That the domestic staff are going to get the salaries and perks like the officials do? or does that mean the diplomats can hire these domestic help for peanuts but they should be given immunity for visa purposes and never look at them even from the window to see how these domestic help are being treated? It is ironic how neither the officials nor the so called Patriotic Indians seem to worry about the whole practice of lying to another govt. when it clearly says it is wrong.....Lets think that Ms.Richards is trying to blackmail Ms.Khobragade, but isn't it Ms.Khobragade started it by getting signature on two different sets of documents? It seems Ms.Richards family members working with different Embassy officials. How could Ms.Khobragade underestimate Ms.Richards' intelligence or was she just being callous in abiding the law? Its no point of bringing all the fault practices of US to defend ourselves. If we think they are doing something wrong, lets point it out rather than following it in some other way. Two wrong things don't become one right thing!!
The second issue about the arrest.......we don't know who acted in what role in this arrest process...Based on the Indian news papers and news channels, Ms.Khobragade was handcuffed in public eye. We can't expect anything more, since the law enforcement officials in USA act very ruthlessly with anyone they are supposed to arrest. Ms. Khobragade is not going to runaway, then why so much force? It seems the US officials need to explain their actions in the arrest process and the treatment of Ms.Khbragade, so as the Indian Govt. in involving directly or indirectly in producing the fake documents!!
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