Friday, December 13, 2013

Devayani Khobragade's Case: An Example of US Double Standards on Human Rights

At the risk of being ostracized, can I say that all these negative reactions against Devayani Khobragade are a bit too extreme… First, she is a Indian diplomat and there is a protocol for dealing with diplomats and I think the US authorities, by convention of diplomatic immunity, crossed a line - they had no right (at least going by Article 29 of the Vienna Convention) to arrest her and press charges and confiscate her passport... that is ridiculous. Second, law of the land aside, I am really surprised that the US authorities are willing to press charges on someone (even if they werent a diplomat) who pays their domestic helper 30000 rupees a month… that is actually how much (often times way lesser) your own corporations pay for their talented “back office helpers” and “Information technology talents” in India... In fact this is far higher (approx. 40% more) than how much a Foxconn employee (Apple’s associates in China) makes in a month. So stop bullying. I am not saying that Devyani Khobragade is a saint but if she has violated “human rights” by paying her domestic helper below minimum wages, then aren't all your corporations operating in developing nations guilty of the same sin?