 "Khobragade row: India's selective outrage")
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" - George Orwell
Orwell’s famous line in his allegorical novel Animal Farm fittingly points up the Indian government and mainstream media’s double standards in dealing with its citizens in difficulty. Indeed all Indians are equal under law, but some, especially those in positions of power or on the right side of the digital divide, with political connections and economic might are more equal than others of lesser distinction.
The arrest of Devayani Khobragade, the polished diplomat in Manhattan who got into trouble with US authorities over charges of visa fraud got New Delhi fuming, but the fact that her maid might have been ill-treated didn’t bother them too much. In fact ordinary Indians – the non-diplomat, non-privileged variety who might be in trouble overseas, rarely witness any zeal from the government to protect their rights and dignity.
Orwell’s famous line in his allegorical novel Animal Farm fittingly points up the Indian government and mainstream media’s double standards in dealing with its citizens in difficulty. Indeed all Indians are equal under law, but some, especially those in positions of power or on the right side of the digital divide, with political connections and economic might are more equal than others of lesser distinction.
The arrest of Devayani Khobragade, the polished diplomat in Manhattan who got into trouble with US authorities over charges of visa fraud got New Delhi fuming, but the fact that her maid might have been ill-treated didn’t bother them too much. In fact ordinary Indians – the non-diplomat, non-privileged variety who might be in trouble overseas, rarely witness any zeal from the government to protect their rights and dignity.
Indeed many would argue that India’s tit for tat approach in the Khobragade’s case was more a diplomatic operation to send out an unequivocal message to the US, rather than any special affection for Khobragade. But there is no running away from the fact that India doesn’t apply the same rules for atrocities that ordinary Indians face overseas, that it does for those in positions of power or money.
A Times of India report from 4 days ago reported that 400 bodies had arrived at Hyderabad airport last year from the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries. These were bodies of Indians who had either killed themselves or died of work site, road accidents or of heart attack and respiratory distress. Two Indians commit suicide every week on an average in the Gulf region according to the report. But when was the last time India showed as much alacrity about tackling this issue?
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It’s no secret that a majority of the 3.5 million Indians working in the Gulf are subjected to horrific work conditions, measly salaries and unsafe work conditions. A recent Amnesty International report said the levels of exploitation of workers in Qatar which is all set to host the 2022 World Cup was ‘alarming’ and found construction workers in bonded labour, prevented from leaving the country for months on end by their employers. In fact under the kafala or sponsorship system used in some countries in the Gulf, this is legally sanctioned.
Has India, which has been wielding all kinds of pressure tactics to ease out immigration laws for I.T. companies, lobbied hard enough to get this law changed? Not really. Perhaps it’s too much of a risk to disturb nice headlines like ‘India to top foreign remittances this year, earning $71 billion’.
India has of course guaranteed a minimum wage for its workers in Gulf countries and also introduced a compulsory insurance program, but report after report suggest how these rules are blatantly flouted. We, needless to say, couldn’t be bothered, like we haven’t been about Indian businessmen who’ve been jailed in Dubai for years on end over bounced cheques after their payments stopped coming in post the 2008 financial crisis.
Even in the Khobragade case, the vantage point of all arguments presented by the government and the media have been from the diplomat’s perspective. While we are all up in arms over the treatment meted out to Khobragade, not too many are bothered by allegations made by the maid’s husband that she was enslaved and used as bonded labour. It has taken Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney to ask why the maid wasn’t getting any sympathy.
“One wonders why there is so much outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian national accused of perpetrating these acts, but precious little outrage about the alleged treatment of the Indian victim and her spouse?” asked Bharara. But India, rather than being embarrassed, has been defending Khobragade’s actions of flouting minimum wage rules.
It is all too clear – our moral outrage only surfaces when the rights of the privileged are at stake. We couldn’t be bothered about how some scraggy maid is being ill-treated in the US, when domestic abuse back home is so rampant and all of us in the affluent strata of society benefit from paying lower wages. In fact, India’s reluctance to fight for the rights of domestic workers is amply proved by the fact that we remain among the few countries that haven’t ratified the UN domestic workers convention.
Finally, let’s not also forget the hypocrisy of countries like the United States which thrive on exploitation of abundant cheap labour overseas, even while sitting on a pedestal for protecting its own citizens’ basic rights. Across the globe – in Cambodia and Bangladesh, in Philippines and China, US multinationals have been accused for years now, of running sweatshops with precarious working conditions. Post the collapse of Rana Plaza, a garment factory in Savar, Bangladesh recently, 38 MNCs were forced to sign new safety accords, but that didn’t include major US firms like Gap, Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s, Sears, JCPenney & Nordstorm notes Dr Jason Hickel, a fellow at London School of Economics’ Department of Anthropology.
Hickel says it's not just a question of demand and supply, but accuses Western MNCs of rigging labour markets in the poorest parts of the world. Labour costs are driven down by creating a destructive “race to the bottom” where MNCs leave countries with little bargaining power by simply opting out of social contracts if countries become too demanding. “If workers in Savar, say, got together to demand better wages or safety standards, the companies that use them would just start sourcing from somewhere else, leaving them unemployed. Such a move wouldn’t take more than a mouse-click at the headquarters of Gap or Wal-Mart” wrote Hickel in his blog for LSE.
Alas, for all its sanctimoniousness, the US is unlikely to fight for minimum wages in these countries.