Diplomatic row or a storm in a teacup?

The Americans say there is no conspiracy involved in the case, and it is "standard practice for every defendant, rich or poor, American or not" to undergo a strip-search and DNA swab, but the Indians are buying none of it, claiming the US administration has humiliated an Indian who enjoys diplomatic immunity.

Khobragade, in the meanwhile, has been released on a $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in a New York court. And although India has transferred her to its mission to the United Nations to grant her full diplomatic immunity, the row over her arrest continues to simmer.

New Delhi has pared down the privileges granted to US diplomats and their families in India; it has withdrawn the diplomatic ID cards given to US officials, taken away their airport passes, stopped their import clearances and withdrawn the extra security barricades and personnel around the US embassy.

Perhaps the Indian government would not have reacted to Khobragade's arrest so vigorously had the general election not been round the corner. The ruling coalition led by the Congress Party does not want to be seen as weak before the election and risk suffering a drubbing at the polls. The Congress Party has already lost the elections to four provincial assemblies, two of which it ran, and a slip-up on the diplomatic front could give the opposition, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, another excuse to lash out at the coalition and gain people's support plus votes.

But then the US could have shown some diplomatic maturity in handling the affair. No one is asking it to spare the guilty and condemn the innocent, though. India, on its part, could have flown Khobragade back to India (as it has done with other officials previously) before the incident snowballed into a serious diplomatic row.

As things stand now, senior US officials must be caught in two minds - whether to press the law of the land or go soft on Khobragade in exchange for India's support to its "pivot to Asia" policy. Whatever the decision, the world is watching.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily.

(China Daily 12/20/2013 page8)