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India insists on dropping case against diplomat

India and the United States tried on Thursday to soothe a blistering row over the arrest and strip-search of a female diplomat in New York, saying it should not do lasting damage to ties.

After US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed “regret” at the episode in a fence-mending phone call, India’s Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid hoped the “valuable relationship” would be back on an even keel shortly.

However in a sign of the sense of bruised pride and humiliation felt in India, Khurshid reiterated calls for a visa fraud case against the diplomat to be dropped and branded her treatment as “terrible”.

“My duty is not to allow anyone to damage relations, the relationship,” Khurshid told foreign journalists in New Delhi.

“We hope it will return (to normalcy) very soon.”

The spat was sparked by last Thursday’s arrest of Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general at its mission in New York, as she dropped her children off at school.

The 39-year-old, who is now free on bail, was detained over allegations that she paid a domestic worker a fraction of the minimum wage and lied about the employee’s salary in a visa application.

Subsequent revelations that she was strip-searched have caused outrage in India, prompting a series of reprisal measures, including the removal of protective barricades outside the American embassy in New Delhi.

In an email to colleagues published on Wednesday, Devyani wrote that she was repeatedly strip-searched and then subjected to a cavity search.

US Attorney Preet Bharara, who made the highly unusual move of issuing a lengthy statement addressing the arrest and issues not in a criminal complaint, said on Wednesday that diplomat Devyani was accorded courtesies most Americans wouldn’t get — such as being allowed to make phone calls for two hours to arrange child care and sort out personal matters — after she was discretely arrested by US Department of State agents outside her children’s Manhattan school.

Bharara, who was born in India but moved with his family to New Jersey, said Devyani, who has pleaded not guilty, wasn’t handcuffed, restrained or arrested in front of her children. And he said that while she was “fully searched” in private by a female deputy marshal, the move was a standard safety practice all defendants undergo.

“One wonders whether any government would not take action regarding false documents being submitted to it in order to bring immigrants into the country,” he said in the statement. “And one wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?”

She has said she has full diplomatic immunity. The Department of State disputes that, saying hers is more limited to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions. Her work status late on Wednesday was unclear.

Khurshid, who on Wednesday pledged to bring Devyani back home at any price, said India had asked for the case against her to be withdrawn.

“We are not convinced that there are legitimate grounds for pursuing it,” he said.

“I cannot believe if a US senator was arrested he would be put through this behavior. I have expressed my distress and dismay ... I would rather not prejudge. Let us allow the American government to respond.”

In an interview with Indian television, Khurshid acknowledged there was “a sense of hurt” over the treatment of the diplomat at a time when the Obama administration is looking to bolster ties with New Delhi.

“Things happen between friends, even things that are terrible,” he told the CNN-IBN network.

In his call to India’s national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, Kerry “expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship,” according to the US State Department.

Deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said it was “particularly important to Secretary Kerry that foreign diplomats serving in the United States are accorded respect and dignity just as we expect our own diplomats should receive overseas.”

Bharara, the US attorney, insisted his sole motivation was to uphold the rule of law, protect victims and hold accountable anyone who breaks the law “no matter how powerful, rich or connected they are.”