'Vegetarians are rapists': Shocking Facebook posts of U.S. diplomat and his embassy worker wife expelled in slave maid row deepen rift with India

Wayne May and his wife Alicia Muller May were effectively deported last week by Indian authorities

The move was apparently in retaliation for the U.S. expulsion of Indian envoy Devyani Khobragade in December

But the outrageous comments have only just come to light - and the couple's respective social media pages are awash with them

Mrs May wrote on Facebook that Indian vegetarians were responsible for a wave of violence: 'Applies only to Indians, not westerners!' she added

She also put up a picture of a cow, sacred in India, with the label 'stupid cow' then admitted insulting Hindus, saying 'Not the first time, not the last!'

An American diplomatic couple kicked out of India in retaliation for the U.S. expulsion of an Indian envoy triggered a new controversy by posting offensive comments about their former host country on Facebook.

Wayne May and his wife Alicia Muller May, from Corinth, New York, were effectively deported last week by Indian authorities.



But their outrageous comments on social media, including one in which they call India a 'zoo,' have only just come to light.



In one shocking musing, Mrs May wrote that Indian vegetarians were responsible for a wave of sexual assaults.



'It's the vegetarians that are doing the raping, not the meat eaters. This place is just so bizarre,' she wrote. Then she added: 'Applies only to Indians, not westerners!'

Racist: United States diplomat Wayne May, pictured right, and his wife Alicia Muller May, left, have been kicked out of India after posting offensive comments about their host country on Facebook

Vegetarians: In one shocking musing, Mrs May wrote that Indian vegetarians were responsible for a wave of sexual assaults

Oops: She later clarified that it was only Indian vegetarians doing the raping not Western ones

May, who worked as a U.S. community liaison officer in New Delhi, put up a picture of a cow, regarded by Hindus as sacred, in a separate post and labeled it 'stupid cow.'

Someone responded to her, 'You just insulted their god.'



'Not the first time, not the last!' she replied seemingly with pride.

The Indian media is abuzz with the story after it revealed the Mays' Facebook comments, which criticized the country's air, water, traffic, health conditions and even the Indian diet.



'My pet dog Pago looks bigger and in better health' than the Mays' gardener, Wayne May wrote.



He added that the dog got 'more protein in his diet than the gardener did.'

In another, Mrs May exclaims 'what a zoo!' describing the country.



After The Times of India blasted the remarks as 'astonishingly offensive' the Obama administration distanced itself from the postings.

Abuzz: Indian media, which is abuzz with the story, revealed the Mays' Facebook comments, including this one, in which they criticized India's air, water, traffic, health conditions and even the Indian diet

Offensive: 'Paco definitely weighs more than (the gardener). A bit more protein in Paco's diet,' Mrs May wrote

'I would underscore that these do not in any way represent the US government position,' a State Department spokeswoman said.



Wayne May, who was in the US embassy's security department, and his wife were identified by Indian media as the American couple who were expelled in retaliation for the expulsion of Khobragade, after her arrest last month on charges she kept her Indian domestic worker in virtual servitude.



Khobragade, 39, a women's-rights champion who served as deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women's affairs at the Indian consulate in New York, was indicted for lying on official documents that claimed she was paying her female housekeeper $4,500 a month.



In reality, the feds say, Khobragade forced Indian national Sangeeta Richard to work 100 or more hours a week, with no days off, for just $573 a month.



She was granted diplomatic immunity and on Tuesday filed papers in Manhattan federal court to get the indictment tossed so she can come back to the U.S. to be with her husband, Aakash Singh Rathore, who teaches philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and their two young daughters.

Distance: The State Department was quick to distance itself from the horrid comments

India asked the United States on Friday to withdraw Wayne May from the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, the latest retaliation in a smoldering diplomatic dispute touched off by the arrest and strip search of an Indian diplomat in New York.

The case has caused a serious rift between the United States and India, where officials have described the treatment of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general in New York, as barbaric.



Khobragade, a 39-year-old mother of two, is accused of exploiting her Indian-born housekeeper and nanny, allegedly having her work more than 100 hours a week for low pay and lying about it on a visa form. Khobragade has maintained her innocence.

Friday's demand by India's Foreign Ministry came just hours after the two sides appeared to have struck a compromise of sorts: Khobragade was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury in Manhattan, but also granted immunity that allowed her to leave the country.



She was on a flight to India on Friday, and many believed that would be enough to give both countries a way to save face.

Given their strategic bilateral partnership and more than $100 billion in trade, any further escalation in the case would not be in the interest of either country, analysts said.

But on Friday evening, the Foreign Ministry said an unidentified American diplomat of the same rank as Khobragade was somehow involved in the case and should leave the country, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.



Requesting the recall of a diplomat is a serious, and fairly unusual, move that sends a message to Washington that India's government doesn't accept the legitimacy of the court action in New York.

Much of the outrage over the case in India stems from the circumstances of Khobragade's arrest, which were seen as unnecessarily humiliating.



Khobragade was picked up mid December and then strip-searched while in custody, which the U.S. Marshals say is common practice.



