The Indian government pulled out all the stops Wednesday trying to prevent a top diplomat from being prosecuted for allegedly lying on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper.
Top Indian officials turned up the heat on the US to let Devyani Khobragade — a champion of women’s rights in her homeland — return to India.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid – the country’s top foreign affairs official – said the stylish diplo would be able to return home following her transfer Tuesday to India’s permanent mission to the UN, a move that could make her eligible for full diplomatic immunity.
“We will bring back the woman diplomat arrested in New York and restore her dignity. It is my responsibility,” Khurshid said, Indian media reported.
“We strongly condemn the treatment meted out to the diplomat in New York. India is not overreacting to the treatment to its diplomat by US. The nation must speak in one voice,” he said.
But the US State Department must OK her application for a new diplomatic card that will give her full immunity.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said she could not speculate on whether Khobragade, 39, would be granted full immunity because no formal request had been made.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described the treatment of the diplomat — who was strip-searched and cavity-searched and housed in a holding cell with other inmates — as “deplorable.”
American officials have tried to downplay the rift between the two countries and assuage India’s concerns.
The State Department issued a statement on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry that expressed his “regret” over the incident – but stopped short of apologizing.
“The Secretary understands very deeply the importance of enforcing our laws and protecting victims, and, like all officials in positions of responsibility inside the US Government, expects that laws will be followed by everyone here in our country,” it read.
Kerry — who Harf said was aware of the arrest before it happened – called Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon to discuss the arrest, the statement added.
“As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the Secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms. Khobragade’s arrest, and in his conversation with National Security Adviser Menon he expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India,” it said.
The White House said it was reviewing the arrest and that President Obama had been briefed on the controversy.
“We understand that this is a sensitive issue for many in India, and we are looking into the intake procedures surrounding this arrest, to ensure that all standard procedures were followed and that every opportunity for courtesy was extended,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.
“I can tell you that the safety and security of our diplomats and consular officials in the field is a top priority.”
Also Wednesday, an outraged mob burned photos of Obama outside the US Embassy in New Delhi Wednesday over the Khobragade’s arrest.
The demonstrators cheered the Indian government’s tough sanctions against the US over the bust of Khobragade, a deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in New York, which included pulling concrete security barriers outside the embassy designed to prevent suicide attacks.
“It was very good that the government removed the barriers. Until the USA says sorry, we should not give any security at all to the Americans,” cried Gaurav Khattar, 33, one of about three dozen protestors, some wearing masks mocking Obama and sarongs made from US flags.
“Humiliating Woman Diplomats … Is it American Culture?” read one banner held by several women.
The lower house of India’s Parliament, meanwhile, was temporarily adjourned after furious lawmakers demanded that it adopt a resolution against the US over the treatment of Khobragade.
Arun Jaitely, leader of the opposition in Parliament’s upper house, said the government had to register its “strongest protest” to the US government for the “lack of respect for India.”
The government stripped US diplomats of privileges – such as access to duty-free booze – and even threatened to boot the domestic partners of gay US diplomats, citing a new law making homosexuality illegal in the South Asian country.
Khobragade was busted by the US Department of State’s diplomatic security team Dec. 12 outside of her daughter’s Manhattan school on charges that she lied on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, Indian national Sangeeta Richard.
Khobragade had said on her visa application for Richard that she would be paid $4,500 per month. But Khobragade allegedly later forced the housekeeper to sign a second contract reducing her salary to $537 per month, less than $4 per hour.
After her arrest, she was handed over to US Marshals in New York, who have acknowledged the strip- and cavity searches but insisted she was treated according to standard procedure.
“Devyani Khobragade was subject to the same search procedures as other USMS arrestees held within the general prisoner population in the Southern District of New York,” said Nikki Credic-Barrett, a spokeswoman with the US Marshals Office.
“Khobragade was placed in the available and appropriate cell. Absent a special risk or separation order, prisoners are typically placed in general population,” she said.
“The arrestee was placed in a cell with other female defendants awaiting court proceedings,” she added when asked if she were placed in a cell with drug addicts.
Credic-Barrett also said a review showed marshals “handled Khobragade’s intake and detention in accordance with USMS Policy Directives and Protocols.”
The feds took her passport during her arraignment in Manhattan federal court, and she can only travel within the US. She is free after posting $250,000 bail.
If convicted, Khobragade faces a maximum sentence of 10 years for visa fraud and five years for making a false declaration.
In an emotional email to colleagues, Khobragade complained of being held in a cell with petty criminals despite her repeated claims of diplomatic immunity.
“I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me,” she wrote in the email.
“I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride.”
The State Department told the Indian government it expects New Delhi to protect its embassy and stressed it did not want the incident with the diplomat to hurt ties.
An employee of the US Embassy in New Delhi told The Post there was no sense of panic about the removal of the barriers, and that all was quiet at 1 a.m. local time.
A series of incidents in which politicians and celebrities have been detained or frisked at US airports has heightened sensitivities about what is seen as harsh treatment abroad.
Shah Rukh Khan, one of Bollywood’s best-loved actors, was detained at White Plains airport near New York last year and at Newark airport in 2009.
Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was frisked on board a plane at New York’s JFK airport in 2011.