It is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution and such an act does not violate any service rule, says Uttam Khobragade
Mumbai/New Delhi : Asserting that freedom of expression is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution, diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s father Uttam Khobragade said she did not violate any service rules by speaking to the media.
On Friday, a disciplinary and administrative action of ‘compulsory wait’ was taken against Devyani, who had hit the headlines last year after she was arrested in the US in a visa fraud case.
Defending his daughter, Khobragade said: “Who says a government officer has to take the permission of the government for speaking to the media? There is no rule on this earth which says that a government officer should not talk to the press without government permission. Hence talking to the Press doesn’t violate any service rule,” he told ANI.
“On the contrary, it is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution, every citizen including the government servant does have a fundamental right, which is called freedom of expression. And this freedom of expression includes talking to the press, which doesn’t require government permission,” he said.
Citing Indian Civil Service rules, he said she did not speak anything which was against the government.
Accoring to a PTI report, a departmental inquiry into Devyani acquiring US passports for her children without informing the ministry has been concluded. It found that her action was “violative of conduct rules” and disciplinary action has been taken. However, the nature of the action has not been disclosed.
The External Affairs Ministry, which is believed to have initiated yet another inquiry into the issue of her talking to media without official permission, has put her on ‘compulsory wait.’
She was a director-level officer in the development partnership division of the ministry in Delhi after her return from the US in January.
However, Devyani asserted that she has not done anything wrong — be it taking dual passport for her children or talking to media.
Ruling out that she will resign after being put on ‘compulsory wait’, she defended her action of taking the US passport for her two children, who were given diplomatic passports at the time of her posting to America, saying that under the service rules, minor children can have two passports and there was nothing wrong in that.
Also justifying her talking to media, the diplomat said it was very much under the ambit of her service rules which provided for the same as long as they were ‘personal views.’
Former Deputy Consul General of India in New York, she was arrested in the US on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid and released on a $ 250,000 bond.
The issue had escalated into a full-blown diplomatic spat between the US and India, which retaliated by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats among other steps.
