Diplomat rape case: Modi's Saudi trip cannot depend on exoneration of torture

The case of the Saudi diplomat in Delhi allegedly raping and brutalising two Nepali women has received wide coverage in the Arab as well as the Western media. From CNN to BBC to the Guardian and Arab News, the story has been widely covered, including whether or not the Vienna Convention was violated when the Haryana Police "barged" into the house of the Saudi diplomat in Gurgaon, a Delhi suburb, to rescue the women. The Convention gives diplomats worldwide immunity from local laws, certainly from arrest and detention.

India has asked the Saudi ambassador Saud Mohammed Alsati to waive his diplomat's immunity and join the investigation, amidst unconfirmed reports that the allegedly offending Saudi diplomat has already returned home. Sources in the ministry of external affairs (MEA) say the crime is of such a grievous nature that "it cannot be business as usual, nor can we pretend as if nothing has happened."

If the Saudis refuse to waive the diplomat's immunity, the government's next logical step would be to declare him persona non grata. This is diplomatic code for punishing a diplomat who has committed a serious offence. This means that the diplomat will have to return home, because there is no way he can continue to stay on in India without the privilege of being immune to arrest.

This is probably the first time that India is being seen to be taking such strong action, at least in public, against the alleged perpetrator of rape and torture who is a foreign national. Recent comment that the matter is becoming a "diplomatic minefield," because the alleged perpetrator is Saudi and the alleged victims Nepali, and that India is caught between two old and trusted friends, must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.

First of all, in the wake of the national outrage against the gangrape of a young girl in Delhi in December 2012, there was no way the police could not have reacted strongly to the alleged reports of rape and torture. The fact that it did speaks to the immense credit and sensitivity of the Gurgaon police and its police commissioner Navdeep Singh Virk.

In fact, the manner in which the whole case has been handled by the government only reiterates India's democratic credentials and the primacy of the rule of law. Considering the nature of the crime was gross brutality and not a parking fine, the government has done well to remind the Saudis that diplomatic conventions are not convenient tools to hide behind which violent crimes can be perpetrated.

Perhaps the MEA can remind the Saudis that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations makes exceptions for "grave crimes." According to the Convention, "consular officers shall not be liable to arrest or detention pending trial, except in the case of a grave crime and pursuant to a decision by the competent judicial authority."

The other comparison with the Devyani Khobragade case is also misleading. The MEA's defence of its own diplomat a couple of years ago was as much about the fact that she was picked up from her house in New York and strip-searched in the local police station. The fact remains that the MEA was, even at the time, quite uncomfortable about the fact that Devyani was allegedly violating the law of the land (in this case, the US) by paying her household help less than what they were entitled to.

At the time, US State Department privately conceded that things could have been handled better. That if the Indian diplomat had indeed violated the minimum wage act, she needn't have been treated like a criminal.

In the case of the offending Saudi diplomat, the Gurgaon police has confirmed the local hospital's examination of sexual abuse. According to the Indian Express, an official of the Gurgaon civil hospital noted that the victims had been so "grievously tortured" that the wounds would take several years to heal.

In fact, by taking the matter to its logical conclusion, the MEA is also sending a message to Saudi Arabia and anyone else who wants to hear : The violation of human rights cannot be held hostage to the pursuit of friendly diplomatic relations - or to the amount of oil India buys from that Arab country.

That is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trip to Saudi Arabia, before the end of the year, cannot be dependent on the exoneration of torture. If it did, it would be a travesty of justice as well as the undermining of India's unique civilisational strengths.