Bulldozers have removed security barriers outside the US embassy in Delhi as a diplomatic row prompted by the arrest of an Indian diplomat on visa fraud charges in New York intensified.
Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, was charged last week with making false statements on an application for her housekeeper to live and work in the United States.
Prosecutors in New York say Khobragade, 39, claimed she would pay her Indian maid $4,500 a month when applying for a visa at the US embassy in Delhi to bring her to New York but actually paid her a third of the US minimum wage of about $10 an hour. She has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which could lead to a 10-year prison sentence, and plans to challenge the arrest on grounds of diplomatic immunity, her lawyer said last week.
In Washington, the US state department has said that standard procedures were followed during Khobragade's arrest. Officials argue that her immunity from prosecution extends only to actions directly connected to her position.
Khobragade's father, Uttam Khobragade, told the TimesNow TV news channel that his daughter's treatment was "absolutely obnoxious".
"As a father I feel hurt, our entire family is traumatised," he said.
In India most middle class families will employ at least one full-time domestic servant, possibly two and sometimes three or four. Wealthy households sometimes employ dozens, including drivers, cleaners, cooks, nannies and gardeners. Supporters argue that the custom provides a degree of welfare and social mobility for often illiterate workers from rural areas which otherwise would not exist. Critics say it reinforces a rigid hierarchy and is exploitative.
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