Top US leadership feels diplomat row with India 'most stupid thing to do'

Deccan herald ^

[Cronos]

“they are caste defined society” - you do know that the lady in question is a “lower caste” if not an untouchable caste according to reports

[Cronos]

the thing is that arresting is fine. you don’t treat a diplomat to strip searches and handcuffs. It could have been done nice and quiet, not this way. No US govt would stand for it’s diplomat staff being treated that way (strip searched) in a foreign land.

[Cronos]

Not to a person with diplomatic immunity.

If a US diplomat was treated to something like that in Delhi, there would be a ruckus....

india's just objecting to the insult

[Theoria]

You do know we don’t care here. That is the point, we don’t use a ‘caste’ system, or as I called it a ‘castle’ system, where she is the Queen while her ‘servant’ is not paid according to the contract she entered. Her own ‘caste’ as defined from her society is irrelevant here, and that is the entire point of our society.

[Theoria]

She did not have ‘diplomatic’ immunity here. She had consular duties and privilege's, which of course is vastly different.

[bert]

The world is just muddling through until Obama is gone. There will be universal sigh of relief when at last, long last, he is gone.

[Former Proud Canadian]

From what caste was the “Indo-American” prosecutor? Inquiring minds want to know.

[James C. Bennett]

If you don’t use a “caste system” in the US, then why are American cities comprised of areas with distinct / separate majority ethnicities, and not a uniform distribution?

You do know that the “caste system” you mention in the Indian context is relevant there to the same extent, don’t you? Officially, it’s illegal to discriminate in India for caste.

[Cronos]

you said “a caste driven society” — however, that’s not true any more in the urban areas and for that matter, it is not relevant in this case, so why did you bring it up?

[Cronos]

She did -- also, I repeat the same question -- what if an American diplomat had been strip searched and handcuffed?

The arrest was fine, but the method of doing it was not diplomatic kosher

[Cronos]

I doubt caste played any role in this -- the prosecutor wanted to look tough (probably angling for a future political role) -- and we don't know if he/she sanctioned the handcuffing/strip searching.

as I said above, the arrest per se looks perfectly legal, but the method should have been done with diplomatic sensitivity.

We wouldn't do this in that way to a British or French diplomat, so India is pissed off