US envoy asked to skip awards event after chief guest refuses to share stage - Financial Express
media awards event co-organised by a UN body had to suffer the consequences of the India-US diplomatic row over the alleged mistreatment of IFS officer Devyani Khobragade in New York as the chief guest refused to share the stage with US envoy Nancy Powell, forcing the organisers to ask Powell not to attend the ceremony.
Planning Commission Secretary Sindhushree Khullar was the chief guest and Powell was listed as special guest at the Laadli media awards for gender sensitivity, co-organised by the United Nations Population Fund and Population First.
However, Khullar is said to have informed the organisers she would not share the stage with Powell, causing the organisers to call Powell’s office and advise her to stay away.
Maintaining that the awards acknowledge efforts by the media to provide “gender-just” perspectives and analysis, one organiser said the presence of the US ambassador “would have gone against our cause”.
“Her presence would give a wrong signal, especially when we are talking of women’s empowerment on this platform, and our own woman has been ill treated by the US,” the organiser said.
Dr A L Sharada, director of Population First, said the US ambassador was asked to not attend “keeping in mind the present situation”.
“It is a very volatile situation and we did not want it to turn ugly. Her presence would have deflected all attention and we did not have the capacity to handle the massive media presence it would have led to,” Sharada said.
Khullar said she did not want to comment. “We need to turn the decibel (level) down,” she said.
Sangeeta Richard was happy with her job, says her daughter Jennifer - India - DNA
Sangeeta Richard, the housekeeper and nanny of India's deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, had told her only daughter that she was very happy with her job and was being paid well.
Jennifer, the 20-year-old daughter of Sangeeta, 42, had shared the information a few months ago with one of her college mates living near her house in Sultanpur Colony in South Delhi.
"Jennifer had informed me that her mother was being paid a good salary and was very happy with the family she was working with. She was not treated like a domestic maid," Shalini, the college friend of Jennifer, told IANS.
Jennifer's statement is contrary to what her mother had said in her complaint to US authorities after she went absconding in June. She had said that she was underpaid and overworked.
Khobragade was charged with visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. She was arrested, handcuffed and made to go through strip and cavity search. India has voiced outrage over her humiliation and demanded an apology and that the case be taken back.
Shalini said that Jennifer and her brother Jatin Richard, 18, would talk to their mother on weekends.
"I and Jennifer had cast our votes in the Delhi elections on Dec 4, but she did not inform me that she was leaving Delhi. Jennifer along with her brother and father Philip Richard left their house suddenly. I don't know where they are now," Shalini told IANS.
Shalini's statement shows the suddenness with which the Richard family left for the US inspite of an FIR against them in Delhi. The family is now in New York.
The third floor two bedroom apartment in Sultanpur Colony, where Richard and her family were residing for the last few years, is now locked.
The address 45/S-1 is in a congested, working class neighbourhood, largely populated by low income families.
Sangeeta's neighbour, Dheeraj Bhardwaj, who resides on the fourth and topmost floor of 45/S-1, told IANS: "Sangeeta had left for US one year ago. Her husband was residing here with her two children."
"We are not very close to Sangeeta's family, but I know that she was working as a domestic help in some embassy here and her husband worked as driver in the Mozambique embassy. But, a year ago Sangeeta's husband was sacked from his job. In the meantime she got a job in the US and went there," Bhardwaj said.
Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.k@ians.in
media awards event co-organised by a UN body had to suffer the consequences of the India-US diplomatic row over the alleged mistreatment of IFS officer Devyani Khobragade in New York as the chief guest refused to share the stage with US envoy Nancy Powell, forcing the organisers to ask Powell not to attend the ceremony.
Planning Commission Secretary Sindhushree Khullar was the chief guest and Powell was listed as special guest at the Laadli media awards for gender sensitivity, co-organised by the United Nations Population Fund and Population First.
However, Khullar is said to have informed the organisers she would not share the stage with Powell, causing the organisers to call Powell’s office and advise her to stay away.
Maintaining that the awards acknowledge efforts by the media to provide “gender-just” perspectives and analysis, one organiser said the presence of the US ambassador “would have gone against our cause”.
“Her presence would give a wrong signal, especially when we are talking of women’s empowerment on this platform, and our own woman has been ill treated by the US,” the organiser said.
Dr A L Sharada, director of Population First, said the US ambassador was asked to not attend “keeping in mind the present situation”.
“It is a very volatile situation and we did not want it to turn ugly. Her presence would have deflected all attention and we did not have the capacity to handle the massive media presence it would have led to,” Sharada said.
Khullar said she did not want to comment. “We need to turn the decibel (level) down,” she said.
Sangeeta Richard was happy with her job, says her daughter Jennifer - India - DNA
Sangeeta Richard, the housekeeper and nanny of India's deputy consul general in New York, Devyani Khobragade, had told her only daughter that she was very happy with her job and was being paid well.
Jennifer, the 20-year-old daughter of Sangeeta, 42, had shared the information a few months ago with one of her college mates living near her house in Sultanpur Colony in South Delhi.
"Jennifer had informed me that her mother was being paid a good salary and was very happy with the family she was working with. She was not treated like a domestic maid," Shalini, the college friend of Jennifer, told IANS.
Jennifer's statement is contrary to what her mother had said in her complaint to US authorities after she went absconding in June. She had said that she was underpaid and overworked.
Khobragade was charged with visa fraud and underpaying her nanny. She was arrested, handcuffed and made to go through strip and cavity search. India has voiced outrage over her humiliation and demanded an apology and that the case be taken back.
Shalini said that Jennifer and her brother Jatin Richard, 18, would talk to their mother on weekends.
"I and Jennifer had cast our votes in the Delhi elections on Dec 4, but she did not inform me that she was leaving Delhi. Jennifer along with her brother and father Philip Richard left their house suddenly. I don't know where they are now," Shalini told IANS.
Shalini's statement shows the suddenness with which the Richard family left for the US inspite of an FIR against them in Delhi. The family is now in New York.
The third floor two bedroom apartment in Sultanpur Colony, where Richard and her family were residing for the last few years, is now locked.
The address 45/S-1 is in a congested, working class neighbourhood, largely populated by low income families.
Sangeeta's neighbour, Dheeraj Bhardwaj, who resides on the fourth and topmost floor of 45/S-1, told IANS: "Sangeeta had left for US one year ago. Her husband was residing here with her two children."
"We are not very close to Sangeeta's family, but I know that she was working as a domestic help in some embassy here and her husband worked as driver in the Mozambique embassy. But, a year ago Sangeeta's husband was sacked from his job. In the meantime she got a job in the US and went there," Bhardwaj said.
Rajnish Singh can be contacted at rajnish.k@ians.in
- anyways please take up your discussions backed by your infinite wisdom with someone of your caliber. Adios.
