Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Is There A Conspiracy To Shatter U.S. - India Bilateral Relations?

It is highly unlikely that there is - but there are certainly public interest questions arising from the Khobragade incident, which could affect India-U.S. bilateral trade to the tune of $100bn U.S.
This is chicken feed in terms of U.S. global interests - but it stretches beyond just money into cooperation to prevent a nuclear holocaust on the Indian sub-continent (involving over 1.4 billion people) the expansion of the power of China and Russia in the region and future U.S. interests in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan.
Anything of such magnitude is deserving of a public (or at the very least Closed Session) Inquiry - involving The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the CIA, the DIA and, an input assessment (of potential impacts arising out of a loss of India as a vital strategic partner) from the  Military Intelligence Corps.
In a statement last Friday, U.S.Attorney Bharara made it unequivocally clear that enormous weight must be given to the Federal Prosecutor's interpretation of events surrounding this case as opposed to those submissions of the Defense lawyer acting on behalf of Dr. Khobragade.
The full background to this incident needs to be carefully investigated-leaving no doubt that the Department of Justice was properly guided and advised with regard to the entire events which led to the arrest and subsequent expulsion of Dr. Devyani Khobragade.
In addition to this there are serious international basic human rights issues – with regard to the treatment of Dr. Khobragade's spouse and family, which also need to be properly investigated.
Because of the fact that the incident took place with events unfolding on the Indian sub-continent, there may well be back issues and back story(ies) which provides a legend(s) not only to the events which unfolded in the United States but to historical background issues which may or may not have a pertinent bearing on this case.
There is no doubt that Attorney Preet Bharara acted in good faith carrying out his tasks in a highly professional manner and only relying on legal advisors views pertinent to the matter in question.   As he himself has said: ''You don't want a justice system where you have prosecutors who are cowboys1.''   Hence the need to ensure public confidence and re-assurance that the handling of the Khobragade Incident was properly advised.

Patrick Emek


1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preet_Bharara#cite_ref-22