New York – Having been very troubled by NYPD Officer Manny Encarnacion’s arrest and being charged in India for his 3-bullets in his checked luggage, soon after Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade ill-advised and unnecessary affair, I heard our senior Senator Chuck Schumer and plain-speaking NY Rep. Peter King lambast India for being angry and wrong as a call to action. Mayor de Blasio, a strong friend of diversity and good cops, also spoke of being “troubled.”
After all, as an American of Indian ancestry, it’s incumbent to speak up if India’s act appears excessive or wrong – even more so, when, as a lawyer, I’m representing the Indian National Congress and Sonia Gandhi in federal courts in the United States and have represented Indian diplomats and families before. That I love law enforcement and am pro bono counsel to the NYC retired cops’ 1013 National Organization was the clinching moral imperative.
So, aside for speaking to folks here, including, Rep. Eliot Engel, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Greg Meeks, Rep. Grace Meng and Anthony V. Perrone, and in India, including, her foreign minister Salman Khurshid. I spoke with India’s Permanent Representative Asoke Mukerji, and Consul General Dnyaneshwar Mulay, who works through Washington, DC based Ambasador Jaishankar. I even spoke with India’s prior PR Hardeep Singh Puri, who had presided over the UN Security Council. Naturally, I discussed with state Senator Adriano Espaillat, the highest ranking Dominican-American elected official, who wanted to help in getting Manny released in India. We even discussed a Cityhall Steps Rally, with all elected officials and NYPD to request India, as a friend, to “Free Manny Now.”
Permanent Representative Mukerji took stock of NYPD’s help to India after the Mumbai Terror attack, and that in New York, NYPD is near-sacred or a “holy cow” after our 9/11, beyond the bilateral relationship. And in Oak Creek, police lieutenant Brian Murphy took 12 shots while defending American Sikhs praying in a Gurdwara, and hence, American law enforcement deserves most favored status – it’s a debt of honor.
Now, when on May 24, 2014, the Indian Court quashed all criminal charges Manny became free to leave India.
So, it’s time to celebrate and say “Thank you.” Thank you Secretary John Kerry for superb diplomacy in calming troubled waters, and a huge “Thank you” to India and all her diplomats who acted compassionately to prevent an injustice. India has shown mature wisdom and re-embraced warmth-based friendship with the United States, a wonderful reset after the Devyani-hiccup of perhaps the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st Century, given Russia and China’s lovefest post-Crimea.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi now gets a well-deserved red carpet for bilateral relations between US and India with Manny’s release, and now every NYC cop knows that India sees them as a friend.
I hope that Mayor de Blasio and Indian Diplomats will celebrate Manny’s return to NYC, with their own events, that celebrate the natural warm ties between United States and India with Manny as Exhibit A.
Ravi Batra, Esq.
Ravi Batra, starting September 11, 2021, is a publisher ofThe America Times Company Ltd., and since January 2022, is the Editor-in-Chief. He is a member of the National Press Club, in Washington D.C., and a member of its "Freedom of the Press" and "International Correspondents" Teams/Committees.
A member of the bar since 1981, he is the head of a boutique law firm in Manhattan, The Law Firm of Ravi Batra, P.C., that handles complex constitutional, sovereignty, torture, civil and criminal cases, representing governments, corporates and individuals, with landmark legal victories, including, libel in fiction, in “Batra v. Dick Wolf.” He is Chairman & CEO, Greenstar Global Energy Corp., King Danylo of Galicia International Ltd., Mars & Pax Advisors, Ltd., Chairman of National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs, and since September 2021, Advisor for Legal and Humanitarian Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations. He is invited by various governments to address High Level Ministerial events, including, on Counter-Terrorism, including, Astana (Nur-Sultan), Dushanbe, Minsk and Delhi. He has testified in Congress as an invitee of the Chair, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, and interacted with U.S. Department of State from 1984 -1990, and then again, from 2006, during the tenures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Rex Tillerson, Mike Pompeo and Antony Blinken.
He has served as Commissioner of New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE), Trustee on New York State IOLA Board, New York State Judicial Screening Committee for the Second Judicial Department, City Bar’s Judicial Committee, Vice-Chair of Kings County Democratic County Committee’s Independent Judicial Screening Committee for the then-2nd Judicial Department of Brooklyn and Staten Island, Chair of NYSTLA’ Judicial Independence Committee, with many more bar leadership roles, including, NYSBA’s House of Delegates for four years. He has served as Advisor for Legal & Human Rights Affairs to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine post-annexation of Crimea till 2021, and Legal Advisor to numerous nations’ permanent missions to the U. N. since 2009, including, India, Pakistan, Honduras and Malta. He has served: as Global Special Counsel to The Antonov Company in Ukraine, a state-owned company, and was registered with the Justice Dept pursuant to FARA; and as Special Global Advisor to Rector/President of both - National Aviation University of Ukraine and National Technical University of Ukraine/KPI. He remains involved in geopolitics and public policy since the mid-1980's, starting with being on House Speaker Tip O’Neill’s Speaker’s Club and appointed member of NACSAA during President Ronald Reagan’s tenure. In 1988, he was part of U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese’s Delegation to Japan to resolve bilateral trade imbalance. He regularly interacts with the multilateral diplomatic community, and during the High Level UNGA Debate, with heads of State/Government. He is sought for his views as a speaker and writer.