Devyani Khobragade: The woman who has chosen to speak out

Dogged by controversies, Khobragade says she feels the need to explain herself even more

As she turned 40 recently, Devyani Khobragade made a few resolutions. One of them was to speak her mind “without the fear of the consequences,” she wrote in a blog titled My arrest changed my attitude about life in November 2014. Almost a year had gone by since the diplomat was arrested in New York for alleged visa fraud. Before this blog on NDTV, she had already spoken her mind on Times Now in October about what she experienced after her arrest and what she hoped from the government.

By this time, the outrage over Khobragade’s arrest and the treatment meted out to her, strip search and all, had simmered down. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had just visited the US. The countries were moving beyond the Khobragade episode that had soured diplomatic bilateral ties between them. Did Khobragade feel abandoned? Some, like Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, commented on how the Khobragade episode had not been on Modi’s agenda during his US visit.

“Some reports came out that the ministry (of external affairs) had abandoned me on the US case,” says Khobragade, a doctor turned diplomat. “The ministry probably felt it was being criticised and that my statements were the reason for that criticism.” So, she decided to go to the media again and back the ministry. “I didn’t feel the government had abandoned me,” she says.

More interviews, statements and blogs in mainstream newspaper and national television followed on how trying her personal and professional life had become, and the lessons she was learning from all this. Khobragade was speaking her mind just when she was not supposed to. Soon after her return from the US, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh had put a gag order on her after the two governments had agreed that she wouldn’t talk about her case publicly. A rap from the ministry of external affairs was inevitable. And it came.

But this hasn’t stopped Khobragade from speaking out. In fact, she feels the need to explain herself even more. “For almost one year (after her arrest), I did not speak out at all,” she says “I did not want to complicate the situation.” But during this period, she says, there was a lot of misreporting about her. “The government,” she adds, “can clarify the allegations against its officer; but if that doesn’t happen, the individual has the right to clarify.”

Meanwhile, another controversy broke out. The ministry placed her under “compulsory waiting” as part of the disciplinary action for not “officially informing” the government that her children hold dual passports. Her duties as director in the development partnership division have been taken away from her. Khobragade’s daughters, aged eight and five, have US passports because their father, Aakash Singh Rathore, is an American citizen. But Khobragade also obtained Indian diplomatic passports for them. What this means is that they have dual citizenship. Khobragade has been vociferously saying that she has not violated any rules. “Under extant Indian laws, my children are entitled to dual citizenship until 18 years of age,” she said in another interview. “The US passports were being used by them only as a visa/travel document to visit the US. This is permissible and even advised by the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices.”

To improve her mental and physical endurance, Khobragade has of late taken up meditation and running — she ran the Airtel Half Marathon in November in Delhi. Her articles and blogs show that she sees the world as a place where women are still struggling to find space without facing abuse. Her support for the Rohtak sisters, who beat alleged molesters in a bus, is an indication of this. Running in the marathon, she says, made her feel for the first time that Delhi’s streets belonged to her as a woman.