Expelled diplomat's comments does not represent government's position: US

[Bang Galore]

Washington: US has distanced itself from the alleged offensive comments made by its diplomat, who was last week expelled by India in a tit-for-tat action following arrest of a senior Indian diplomat in New York last month.

"Those comments absolutely do not reflect US Government policy, nor were they made on any official US Government social media account," State Department Deputy Spokesperson, Marie Harf, told reporters at her daily news conference.

Ms Harf was responding to questions on the Facebook postings by American diplomat Wayne May and her spouse Alicia Muller in which they allegedly make offensive comments about India and appear to be insensitive to the Indian culture.

Citing privacy reasons, the State Department official refused to identify the diplomat who was asked to leave India last week. But Indian sources have identified them as Wayne May and Alicia Muller May. The couples were not available for reaction.

Ms Harf said she has not seen the comments.

"I've seen the reports of them... Again, I would underscore that these do not in any way represent the US Government position," she said.

Expelled diplomat's comments does not represent government's position: US | NDTV.com
Expelled diplomat’s comments doesn’t represent govt position: US - The Hindu

 

[third eye]

The earlier we have this sordid saga behind us the better.

 

[Roybot]

I wonder what @Solomon2 has to say about this. He had been defending those comments in the other thread.

 

[xyxmt]

how can one comment on a post about someone's comments without quoting the comments
no comments

 

[Bang Galore]

how can one comment on a post about someone's comments without quoting the comments
no comments

WASHINGTON: The US official who was expelled in a tit-for-tat diplomatic battle over Devyani Khobragade was nearing the end of his posting in India, scheduled to leave New Delhi in February. But in their three years in India, Wayne May, who headed the US embassy's security team in New Delhi, and his wife Alicia Muller May, who worked as the embassy's community liaison officer, revealed conflicting impulses and contradictory outlook towards the people and country they served in.

On the one hand, it was evidently their bleeding heart concern for housekeeper Sangeeta Richard, whose in-laws worked with them and a succession of US embassy officials, that led them to "rescue" the nanny's husband and children from the strong-arm tactics of the Indian judicial and police system that diplomat Devyani Khobragade unleashed on them after Sangeeta fell out with her. On the other hand, their facetious comments about a stereotypical India abounding in chaos and filth, which some might see as offensive, shows them as the archetypal "ugly Americans".

They laid out their opinions and views quite guilelessly on social media through photographs and comments that were quickly seized on and distributed by bloggers and trolls ever sensitive to any perceived insult of India. Although the comments are often flippant, the kind many people make on social media without fear of consequence, they sound extremely offensive now given the fraught context of the diplomatic spat. Their profiles, pictures and comments were removed and their social media presence sanitized soon after they were discovered, but not before the online warriors had saved and uploaded them on other social media sites, portraying them as "racist American diplomats".

The Indian "holy cow" is a recurring theme in their entries, starting from the time Wayne May was posted in New Delhi in 2010. The first of the pictures appears in June 2010 with a comment from Wayne saying, "No eating the sacred cows". A little later, he adds, "one week in country and I already miss steak".

His wife Alicia captions another photo "Stupid Cow". A friend comments, "You just insulted their god," to which May responds, "Not the first time, not the last time". But a short time later, she shows the kind of frustration that many Indians might also share: "Just wait till you have to dodge these beasts in your car because they are laying in the middle of the road blocking traffic — they lose their 'holiness' real fast. And, as holy as they are supposed to be, most of them are bodyline starved. It's awful to see. Everything is a contradiction here ..."

There is other banter in which enraged nationalists see signs of Indian laws being broken by the meat-loving diplomats. "Had real American Hamburgers for dinner last night. A friend smuggled them in his suitcase last night," Alicia Muller May writes in September 2010, soon after their arrival in India, adding, "water buffalo burgers just aren't cutting it. Oh, the simple pleasures of life ..." Another time, she alerts her friends in Delhi to "a good friend in Beijing who is coming to the CLO office with beautiful pearls for sale ..." — which some see as evidence that embassy premises were being used for commercial activities.

In one bizarre exchange in November 2012 in response to a Huffington Post article on claims that are meat eaters being more prone to violence and sex crimes, Alicia May says "I'd like them to do a follow up article on how many vegetarians rape women here every day." It is the vegetarians that are doing the raping, not the meat eaters, she says, later adding that, "Applies only to Indians, not westerners".

The domestic Indian staff for whom they professedly had concern don't come out very well either in their corrosive social media exchanges. In one photograph, it is pointed out that their pet dog Paco looks bigger and in better health than their Indian gardener. Paco, says May, gets more protein in his diet. Another time, May goes to a mosque in Delhi with two visitors where they get a VIP tour because they are from the US embassy.

"I hate the taste but I have to be polite," she says about having to drink tea at the mosque. Her friend: "Tea? I thought it was coffee." "If it tastes like rancid mushroom, don't drink it." Friend (who is evidently serving in Afghanistan): ''Everything is rancid in Afghanistan. That's how you know it is farm fresh."

To be sure, most of the exchanges are frivolous and typical of social media tattle. But given the sensitive positions they occupied in the US embassy, they are, particularly in hindsight, astonishingly offensive, robbing the couple of their "bleeding heart" credentials that is said to have led them to spirit out Sangeeta Richard's family from New Delhi. The biggest irony: Alicia Muller May is the US embassy's community liaison officer.


Also read: Racist American Diplomats

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Did we not expel his wife as well ? She deserves to go too.

 

[FaujHistorian]

Welcome to the new Indian middle class and their nationalism. USA better understand the change. it is no longer an India of 60s that can be easily manipulated.

 

[dray]

A good outcome of the whole fiasco is that the policymakers who were neglecting and in some cases spoiling our relationships with our old and reliable friends and partners in pursuit of wooing this new found friend; now got a chance to step back and rethink about their policies.

Personally, I am opposed to the idea of too much of "friendship" with America, and strictly against buying key military equipment like fighter jets etc. which Americans love to use as a convenient handle to manipulate and arm-twist foreign policy of the receiving country.

 

[faithfulguy]

Welcome to the new Indian middle class and their nationalism. USA better understand the change. it is no longer an India of 60s that can be easily manipulated.

Unfortunately, India can win a few diplomatic battles here and there. But it does not really have the depth. Once the federal reserve make any more statements, Indian economy will tank.

 

[Bang Galore]

Did we not expel his wife as well ? She deserves to go too.

Was not officially expelled but reports say that she too left the country.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Was not officially expelled but reports say that she too left the country.

If true , good riddance.

 

[scholseys]

............................

 

[Bang Galore]

“These social media posts are as offensive as they are moronic, and are in no way a reflection of United States policy or the dedicated employees of the State Department,” said a spokesman for Rep. Eliot Engel (D-Bronx), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “That said, mistakes were made on both sides regarding the Khobragade incident, but with the reciprocal expulsions, hopefully India and the U.S. can now find a way to move the relationship forward.”

State Department removes 2 from posts in India after 'vegetarians are doing the raping' comment
Wayne May, who heads up the U.S. embassy in New Delhi's security, and his wife Alicia Muller May — an embassy community liaison — were named by the Times of India as the offenders who posted messages on Facebook joking about the rapes that have occurred in the country and the rampant poverty.
By Leslie Larson AND Corinne Lestch / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

How undiplomatic of them.

An American couple apparently didn’t master the art of handling delicate matters when they moved to India about a few years ago to work in the U.S. Embassy.

The Americans — who were expelled from India as retaliation for the United States deporting Indian envoy Devyani Khobragade — openly mocked their host country for its customs and poverty.............................................


State Department removes 2 from posts in India after 'vegetarians are doing the raping' comment - NY Daily News

 

[JayAtl]

we are not absolved from having morons in positions of power at times...the comments are unbecoming of one of the finest diplomatic core, and men and women that work hard for our state department. Glad they were thrown out.

 

[Star Wars]

Glad this happened ...knocked some sense into Indians about wooing Murica too mich