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US NEWS
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FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014 MIDWEST EDITION
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US re-indicts Khobragade, India protests
Diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s arrest and strip search in New York on December 12 has strained relations between India and the US.
The development comes two days after a court dismisses visa fraud case against the Indian diplomat IANS, WASHINGTON
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ashing hopes of a closure of the Devyani Khobragade affair, Indian American prosecutor Preet Bharara has secured a fresh indictment of the Indian diplomat even as India described it as an “unnecessary step”. Two days after a New York judge dismissed the visa fraud case against Devyani Khobragade, India’s then consul general in New York whose December 12 arrest
and strip search strained ties between the two countries, a U.S . grand jury on March 14 again indicted her on the same criminal charges. “A grand jury has returned a true bill today on a two-count criminal indictment of Devyani Khobragade,” Bharara’s office said in an announcement. An arrest warrant was also issued after the indictment, according to Jerika Richardson, spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
Sikhs in US Army: India hails Congress backing IANS, WASHINGTON
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ndian ambassador S. Jaishankar has welcomed United States lawmakers plea to end U.S. defense department’s presumptive ban on Sikh Americans serving in the U.S. military with their beards
S Jaishankar
and turbans. Over 100 members of Congress from both Democratic and Republican parties made the plea in a March 10 letter to the U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to promote inclusion of Sikhs in the U.S. Armed Forces by updating their appearance regulations. The major bipartisan push for
change was led by Joe Crowley, Democratic Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus in the House, and Rodney Frelinghuysen Republican Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. In a statement on the letter’s release, Jaishankar said: “The Congressional initiative is an important step towards upholding the cultural rights of the Sikh community in the United States. “The large number of signatories to this letter testifies to the important role played by the Sikh community in the United States and its various walks of life.” “The Sikh community’s success in the United States is a source of pride for India and a pillar of the India-U.S. partnership,” he said. Speaking of the contributions of the Sikh community in India, Jaishankar noted, “India takes pride in being the cradle of Sikhism. The Sikh community is an intrinsic part of India’s multi-religious and pluralistic fabric.” “The tremendous progress and prosperity they have achieved, and their enormous contribution to their motherland, speak volumes about their indefatigable spirit of enterprise and diligence,” Jaishankar said.
Khobragade faces one count of visa fraud and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying on a visa application about how much she paid her housekeeper, Sangeeta Richard, according to the indictment filed in a Manhattan federal court on March 14. India on March 15 said the second indictment of Khobragade in the U.S. was an “unnecessary step”. “The second indictment of Devyani Khobragade is an unnecessary step. We are disappointed.
We reiterate that the case has no merit,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said in a tweet. “India’s government will no longer engage on this case in the US legal system,” he said. Khobragade, who according to the U.S. had limited consular immunity, was reassigned by India to a UN job after her arrest. But the U.S. asked her to return to India on January 9 after New Delhi refused to waive her then newly-acquired full diplomatic
immunity. Her lawyer Daniel Arshack declined comment after the fresh indictment which effectively returns the case to where it was before March 12 dismissal. “The government of India will respond in due course,” he said in a statement. U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled that Khobragade, India’s former deputy consul-general in New York, had diplomatic immunity in her new job at the UN on January 9 and could not be prosecuted.
US ‘very hopeful’ on future ties with India WASHINGTON: Seeking to distance itself from United States prosecutor Preet Bharara securing a re-indictment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the U.S. state department says it’s “very hopeful about what the future holds” for India-US relationship. “Obviously, this is in the hands of the Department of Justice,” spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters on March 17 via teleconference in snowbound Washington when asked about the re-indictment
of Khobragade two days after the dismissal of a visa fraud case against her by a New York judge. “In terms of the future of our relationship, as Jen Psaki you know, Assistant Secretary (of State Nisha Desai) Biswal was just in India,” she said. “She had a productive trip while she was there. She had a range of meetings while she was there.”
“Our relationship and all of the issues we work together on are far too important,” Psaki said. “So we’re looking forward, and we’re very hopeful about what the future holds.” Asked to comment on the upcoming parliamentary elections in India, Psaki said: “I think we’re conveying pretty clearly that we have an important relationship and we work together on economic, strategic, and security issues.” Biswal’s “trip was evidence of that as well”, she said.
One-fourth of Indian graduates get jobs in US IANS, WASHINGTON
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bout one in four business school graduates in India find jobs in America, second only to China, which sends 38 percent of its alumni to the United States, according to a new survey. While 64 percent of Indian business graduates stay in their home country, 23 percent go the U.S. and two percent to Canada. In the case of China, 48 percent stay home, while eight percent prefer Hong Kong as their second job destination after the U.S.
Around 23 percent of Indian students shift to the US for jobs.
The Alumni Perspectives Survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which administers the worldwide Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT), is based on a poll of 20,704 alumni from 129 nations, including 984 from India. After India, Mexico (18
percent) sent the most business graduates to the US followed by Japan (16 percent), Germany (15 percent), Canada (15 percent), and Australia (4 percent). As for the U.S., 97 percent of its business school graduates find jobs at home with only 3 percent going abroad.