I have been blogging repeatedly about this case, because I’ve felt instinctively that it was only the tip of the iceberg.

As I’ve shown at my blog, there has been a history of what looks, to an impartial observer, like unfriendly acts by the US toward India.

I am not sure this whole story wasn’t engineered in some way. Diplomatic rows often precede economic…and even military…rows.

It’s to be hoped it won’t go that far, but in a time of recession, it’s easy to whip people up against dark-skinned foreigners, with a culture and appearance you don’t like. Displaced anger is perfectly understandable in the population.

But from the media?

The so-called intelligentsia has been inflaming and exaggerating dozens of issues (from rape to trafficking to Indian labor to the financial crisis) in the most irresponsible way. What is their responsibility?

BBC:

“India has asked the US to withdraw an official from its embassy in Delhi in a row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York……

In requiring the US to remove one of its diplomats from Delhi the Indian government is effectively treating the departure of its own diplomat from the US as an expulsion.

The question now is whether this draws a line under the messy diplomatic spat between the two countries.

Of greater importance is the longer-term impact this may have on bilateral ties. India, a democracy and rising power in Asia, is seen in many quarters in Washington as a natural fit to become a special partner of the United States. The US has sought a closer strategic and military partnership with Delhi but to a large extent has been rebuffed.

India is cautious about advancing ties too quickly. It doesn’t want to antagonise Beijing and many Indians still see the US as having been far too close to Pakistan.

Ms Khobragade has always denied any wrongdoing.

Some local reports say Washington has been asked to withdraw a diplomat of a “similar rank” as Ms Khobragade from its Delhi mission.

Others quote an unnamed government official as saying the US official was involved in the case relating to Ms Khobragade – although this is yet to be confirmed.”“

NDTV describes the US diplomat being expelled as someone who had instigated and assisted in spiriting Sangeeta Richard out of India in contravention of Indian laws.