As Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat, who is at the centre of a strenuous Indo-American diplomatic row, has now been allowed to leave the US. This development appears baffling as to how a seemingly trivial issue snowballed into a major problem between the two countries. It is also unpredictable to assess the future shape of things as a sequel to the matter. This is more so as New Delhi has also again toughened its stance. This signals that the potentially divisive spat is not over.
India has asked the US to remove one of its diplomats in New Delhi, evidently as a retaliatory measure to Washington's actions involving Devyani Khobragade. A month after Khobragade, the deputy head in the Indian consul office in New York, was arrested by the police and later released on bail, the issue remains explosive even though it otherwise looked to be dying down earlier.
The Indo-US diplomatic row has flared up again, following the announcement by New Delhi about the need on the part of the US to take back one of its diplomats. This is so, despite that Washington allowed the indicted Indian diplomat to return home. She has been charged with fraud for giving wrong information about her Indian-born house-keeper and the American authority has refused to withdraw the case against her, although New Delhi has been harping that she is innocent. However, the US finally allowed her to leave for home, probably in an indication to help resolve the matter through a kind of "face-saving" formula for both the countries, whose ties are otherwise quite friendly and cooperative.
But as Khobargade, a 30-year-old mother of two children, landed in India, New Delhi announced that it asked the US to remove a diplomat of Khobargade's status from the Indian capital city. Evidently, the matter remains far from being settled and two sides are expected to cross swords on the subject unless some kind of understanding is reached on the matter.
The diplomatic drama began with the arrest of Khobargade that angered India with its prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh describing this as "deplorable" and others including external affairs minister Salman Kurshid calling it "despicable" The incident caused an outrage in media and elsewhere in India while the US also sought to stick to its ground and brushed aside such allegations like that the diplomat was strip-searched. Washington also said that Khobargade did not enjoy the full diplomatic immunity as she was a consular staff. In its initial reaction, India withdrew some facilities to the American diplomats. But later both sides showed some signs of not being keen about allowing the matter to blow out of proportions.
However, the bitterness has not been over as senior US officials postponed important visits to India. New Delhi also sought to keep the pot boiling, despite an apparent slackening of efforts to magnify the intensity of the incident.
The issue seemed to have come somewhat as a bolt from the blue as two countries have been enjoying close bilateral ties over the past several years. So much so has been the cordiality of their ties that the present Indian government has often been dubbed earlier as being a "pro-American" one.
The New Delhi-Washington bilateral ties are marked by multi-level cooperation, highlighted by an accord on civilian atomic cooperation, a rare gesture from the US. The administration of president Barack Obama and that of his predecessor George Bush forged closer ties with the government of Dr. Manmohan Singh, understandably for a variety of reasons like confronting China. The US is seen as the world's strongest democracy while India is the largest one so.
Then, what is the reason for the latest sign about, what seems to be, a reversal of the erstwhile warm ties and that too surrounding an incident which could have been avoided or played down by both sides? The question that comes to the fore is whether the diplomatic row has cropped up suddenly and incidentally or it is symptomatic of a relationship that is also riddled with misunderstanding on other matters and inter-related problems. It is plausible to think that the semblance of the good relations may not be all that glittering, although the overall ties have been looking to be good.
The Indian press says that two countries have differences of views on bilateral and other issues as well. One of the latest such matters, according to some sections in the Indian media, is the political situation in Bangladesh. It is said that the US wanted an "inclusive" election with the participation of all major parties while India broadly supported the stance of Sheikh Hasina's government in Dhaka.
Whatever be the real reasons for the latest worsening of the ties, the two countries are unexpected to allow the trend to dip much because of their closer cooperation in many other areas. Possibly, Washington wants to convey a message to New Delhi through a minor issue that everything can not taken lightly. On the other hand, India may also be keen on demonstrating that self-dignity, as part of its independent foreign policy, which the American must understand. Analysts are not very hopeful about the lately strained ties coming back to the status quo ante too soon, but much deterioration is not expected either.
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