Devyani Khobragade

Early life

Khobragade was born in Tarapur, Maharashtra, into a prominent Dalit family from Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. She attended Mount Carmel High School in Mumbai. She obtained a degree in medicine from King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College. While doing an MS in Ophthalmology, Khobragade decided to become a civil servant.

Career

Khobragade joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1999. She has been posted in Germany, Italy and Pakistan. In 2012, she was posted to the Consulate General of India in New York where she worked as Deputy Consul General till December 2013. She handled women's affairs as well as political and economic issues. On 6 April 2013 Khobragade told the Indian Panorama newspaper that her "ambition is to have direct impact on a foreign policy for underprivileged women". As a Dalit woman, Khobragade provided her personal perspective on Women's Rights and the Influence of Demographics in India at the Australian Consulate-General in New York in April 2013.

On 20 January 2014 she was posted to New Delhi as director of the Development Partnership Administration (DPA), an agency formed in 2013 at the Ministry of External Affairs to handle India's projects overseas. In December 2014 the Ministry of External Affairs removed her from this post and placed her on "compulsory wait". In July 2015 she was reinstated as a director in the Ministry of External Affairs, this time in its State Governments division. She chose to work with Kerala, aiming to promote its interests overseas in areas like investment, culture, tourism and the well being of its large diaspora in the Gulf countries.

Khobragade was selected for the Chevening Rolls-Royce scholarship in 2012. She is proficient in English, Hindi, Marathi and German.

Devyani Khobragade was to be appointed Personal Secretary to then Minister of State Ramdas Athawale in July 2016, but the request was turned down by the senior minister.

She owns a flat in the now infamous Adarsh Housing Society apartment complex meant for defence widows.

Personal

Khobragade is married to an American citizen, New York-born Dr. Aakash Singh Rathore, who is research professor at University of Luiss, Rome, Italy. Aakash received a PhD in Political Philosophy (Louvain) and an LLM in Comparative Constitutional Law (Central European University, Budapest). He is also a wine enthusiast. The couple met during Devyani's first diplomatic posting in Germany. Since Rathore is a foreign national married to an Indian diplomat, he has applied for Indian citizenship which has not yet been granted since he has not completed the required domicile period in India.

The couple have two daughters, who were ages 7 and 4 in 2013. Khobragade's father, Uttam, was an officer in the Indian Administrative Service. He is also implicated in a number of corruption scandals. Devyani's uncle, Dr Ajay M Gondane is also an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1985 batch.

Adarsh Housing Society scam

Devyani Khobragade owns a flat in the Adarsh Housing Society, According to an official report, her membership application for this contained inaccurate statements.

Undue favors in her postings

The Supreme Court of India held that Ms. Devyani Khobragade was given a posting of her choice in the Indian Foreign Service by bending and modifying the specific rules of allocation for the specific year of 1999 where she was ranked lower than a meritorious batch mate of hers Mr. Mahaveer C Singhvi. The finding appears in the judgment of the Supreme Court of India in a case filed by the victim batch mate against the vendetta activities of the Ministry of External Affairs effecting his service in the case of Union of India v Mahaveer C Singhvi. The Supreme Court of India in its Judgment stated "The mode of allotment was amended for the 1999 Batch in such a calculated fashion that Ms. Khobragade, who was at Serial No.7, was given her choice of German over and above the Respondent who was graded at two stages above her."

United States visa fraud

On 12 December 2013, Devyani Khobragade, India's Deputy Consul General at its diplomatic mission in New York City at that time, was arrested on charges of visa fraud and perjury, over the payment of her Indian housekeeper. This incident led to a major diplomatic standoff between India and the United States.

In the last quarter of 2014, Devyani Khobragade gave a series of interviews to the Indian press, suggesting that the Indian government seek a political resolution of her case with the United States.