Newsmaker: Devyani Khobragade

India's newest cause celebre

When Murli Deora, then petroleum minister, visited Pakistan in 2008, the first person that Muhammad Mian Somroo, caretaker prime minister of Pakistan at the time, enquired about was Devyani Khobragade, a little-known Indian diplomat who served in the Indian mission in that country. Obviously, she had impressed the Pakistanis enough to get the attention of even the prime minister. But Khobragade, now 39 years old, had always been a spunky woman, adventurous and a go-getter. At the time that she was posted in Pakistan (2007-2010), there was internal strife and bomb blasts had become routine. The government gave her the option of returning home after a year of service in that country. She refused and insisted she would complete the full tenure of three years. "She always asked for challenging postings. She left quite an impression in Pakistan," says her father, Uttam Khobargade, a former Indian Administrative Officer of the Maharashtra cadre.
 

Given her spunky nature, there naturally were concerns when she talked of an experience that she said had driven her to tears. Overnight, she became a cause celebre when law enforcers in New York arrested her and allegedly treated her as a common criminal, strip-searched her and put her behind bars with drug addicts on the charge of underpaying her maid, Sangeeta Richard. Khobragade, however, has pleaded not guilty and has been granted bail.

Khobragade joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1999, and has so far served in political divisions of the Indian missions in Pakistan, Italy and Germany. New York was her last posting where she served as a deputy consul general before being transferred to the United Nations on Wednesday.

The arrest has had a bizarre aftermath, with the Indian government taking an unprecedented series of steps, like deciding to review diplomatic status of US staff in India, withdrawing certain import privileges of the US Embassy, even dismantling the concrete barricades around the American mission in New Delhi.

"I am overwhelmed with your support and words are not enough to describe it," she told Business Standard over the phone in her first reaction after her release on bail.

It is not for the first time, however, that Khobragade finds herself in the limelight. Her name was mentioned in relation to the Adarsh scam, in which she faced accusations of having purchased property in the housing society despite being the owner of one in another society, a contravention of laws in Mumbai. "She has done nothing wrong. We got the property under the reserved quota. I had applied in her name and made the payments from her bank accounts. We sold the property at Oshiwara and bought another at Adarsh because of its better location," says her father, an aspiring politician.

Media reports have listed the numerous properties existing in her name, though equally, they have said most of them are "inherited" properties. The senior Khobragade says he is very fond of his elder daughter when explaining how the diplomat came to own so many inherited properties.

The petite diplomat is married to Prakash Singh Rathore, a professor of philosophy, who taught at the University of Rome. She met him in Germany. They have two daughters, Amaya Singh Khobragade, 7, and Shaira Singh Khobragade, 4. "My daughter is very caring of her parents and has given my family name to her two daughters," says the former IAS officer of his granddaughters' surnames.

Khobragade has always loved adventure and relished sports such as horse riding, river rafting, bungee jumping and skiing. She was also a brilliant student, having cleared the civil services exam at her very first attempt. Tushar Behera, one of her batchmates during training for the civil services, remembers her as a lively and outgoing person. And while Khobragade regularly updates her status on Facebook with news of herself in newspapers and television channels, she is not overly gregarious and has a small friends' list on the social networking site.