Mumbai, December 22 – Devyani Khobragade, the Indian diplomat who landed in controversy following her arrest in the US for paying her maid meagre salary, indicated that she may take legal recourse against the action of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Devyani, who has been stripped of her responsibility as director in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), has been put on “compulsory wait”. Speaking to mediapersons, Devyani, who is in Maharashtra, said that she would study the action taken against her by the MEA and if she found it unjust, she would take legal recourse to get justice.
Devyani said that she had not violated any rules as she had not criticised any government policy and neither had she said something to embarrass the friendly relations between the two countries (the US and India).
Uttam Khobragade, a retired IAS officer and father of Devyani, had launched earlier a campaign to garner support for his daughter. Uttam echoed similar arguments in his daughter’s defence. “Civil service rules do not prevent officials from speaking about the injustice done to them and that is what Devyani had done,” he said.
In fact, Uttam said that he did not understand the objective behind the action taken by the external affairs ministry and suspected that it may have been done to harass her. As Devyani is yet to get the departmental order, it is only a speculation that the action taken against her is for interacting with the media.
Uttam said the next course of action would be decided only after his daughter receives the departmental order. Uttam Khobragade is now the national executive president of the Republican Party of India (A), a minor ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state and the centre.
RPI (A) chief Ramdas Athavale has assured of pursuing Devyani’s case with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and if possible, also approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
RPI (A) does not have any elected representative in the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha. Moreover, Athavale has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from the BJP quota and his ability to wield influence over the BJP and the Modi government is significantly less.
-INDIA TODAY
