A petition demanding that the White House drop all charges against Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade on charges of lying on her maid’s visa application and paying her well below the minimum wage is off to a slow start.
In just five days, the online petition drive on the White House’s own website has collected less than 500 signatures.
The We the People section of whitehouse.gov promises that any drive that collects 100,000 signatures within 30 days will get a response from the President.
The petition focuses on the strip and cavity search conducted by authorities following her arrest. The US has confirmed Khobragade was stripped search, but deny she was cavity searched. The petition reads:
Her public humiliation injures the sentiments of the Indian American community. Such incidents are bound to strain the Indo-US relations. We request that given the trauma and public humiliation that Dr. Khobragade has egregiously suffered, the criminal case against her should be dropped immediately.
A poll conducted by Boston based INE Media found a majority of Indian Americans support the arrest of Khobragade.
Meanwhile another Indian diplomat who was charged in 2011 with slavery, forced labour, non-payment of full wages has come to the defense of Khobragade. You can read about that in India Today.
