U.S. Prosecutor's Crusade Against Indian Diplomat is About His Moral Ego, Not Foreign Nannies
India and America are suffering from their worst diplomatic crisis in 20 years. The cause? A showdown over how a Manhattan-based Indian diplomat was treated by U.S. Prosecutor Preet Bharara for allegedly underpaying her Indian housekeeper. She was arrested when dropping her daughters off to school, strip searched, and held in a cell with "common" criminals, in violation of her diplomatic immunity.
Although Indians have a disturbing tendency to equate their national pride with how their government officials are treated abroad, I note in the Washington Examiner, they do have a point
Bharara, himself of Indian origin, asked them: "Why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim?" It's a good question.
But the answer is not, as Bharara insinuated, the deeply class-conscious Indian society that reflexively treats the rich and powerful as more equal than the poor and powerless. It is that Indians see Bharara's pompous insistence on enforcing a preposterous rule of law without regard to the human context as moral fanaticism.
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