WASHINGTON  - The United States Friday rejected any link between the spat over Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade affair and the US downgrade of India’s aviation safety, saying it was committed to help New Delhi get its ranking back.
“This absolutely had nothing to do with the ongoing case of Dr. Khobragade,” State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said when asked by Indian journalists if the US action would hurt efforts to restore ties with India after their worst diplomatic row over the Dec 12 arrest of the diplomat. Her arrest in New York and strip-search sparked off anger across India, with New Delhi responding with tough retaliatory actions against American diplomats.
“This was a regulatory decision,” she told reporters at the daily press briefing, referring to the US Federal Aviation
Authority’s (FAA) downgrade of the safety ranking of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from category-I to category-II rating.
“I don’t know how much leeway we have in those,” Harf said when asked if it was not possible to try and defer the FAA decision amid efforts to repair strained relations over the arrest of Ms. Khobragade, India’s former deputy consul general in New York.
“But it’s my understanding that this was all made inside a regulatory framework that has very specific criteria countries have to meet under ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) standards that we’re all party to,” she said.
“These aren’t our standards,” Harf said commenting on India’s expression of disappointment over the FAA decision.
AFP adds: The Manhattan federal prosecutors said in court papers filed Friday That Indian diplomat holds no immunity from US prosecution and should continue to faces charges of visa fraud, Devyani Khobragade was arrested on December 12 on charges that she lied to US authorities about what she paid her housekeeper. She was stripped-searched while detained in Manhattan federal courthouse, which led to a diplomatic firestorm between India and the United States that continued for weeks.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara’s office argues in the court filings that Khobragade is a former diplomat and not immune from prosecution. Khobragade “currently enjoys no diplomatic status, and at the time of her arrest, the defendant’s position as a consular official gave her immunity from prosecution for official acts only,” assistant US Attorneys Kristy Greenberg and Amanda Kramer wrote.
As Indian officials demanded her release, Khobragade’s New York attorney argued that her status as a consular official granted her immunity.
Khobragade was accredited as a member of India’s mission to the United Nations earlier this month, one day before she was indicted and asked to leave the country.
The accreditation was part of a deal to allow her to leave the country.
On January 14, with Khobragade back in India, her New York-based attorney filed a motion asking a US judge to throw out those charges.
In court papers, Khobragade attorney Daniel Arshack said that diplomatic immunity granted to her by the US State Department gave her absolute immunity from US prosecution, even for suspected acts committed earlier.