New Delhi: In an escalating diplomatic row, India has asked the US to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, a move which may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by them as a protest to the treatment meted out to India’s Deputy Consul General in New York. “Government has asked the US to return the ID cards given to their consular officers posted in India,” Government sources told PTI.
It is understood that the government intends to review the immunity and benefits enjoyed by US diplomats.
Significantly, the review comes after India reacted sharply to Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade being arrested and handcuffed in public in New York on visa fraud charges last week by summoning US Ambassador Nancy Powell and issuing a demarche in this regard.
The displeasure was also evident among leaders and officials of Indian government.Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today cancelled his meeting with a senior US Congressional delegation ostensibly as a mark of protest against the treatment meted out to Khobragade.
On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had cancelled her meeting with a senior US Congressional delegation due to the same reason.
National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon, who also had a scheduled meeting with the five-member US team, did not meet them, apparently for the same reason.
The delegation comprised Congressmen George Holding (Republican – North Carolina), Pete Olson (Republican – Texas) David Schweikert (Republican – Arizona), Robert Woodall (Republican – Georgia), Madeleine Bordallo (Democrat – Guam).
39-year-old Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody last week on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
Later talking to reporters, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said, “I don’t think this is indicative of being taken for granted. But certainly it is not a good indication that a diplomat should be treated like this….we strongly object to the manner the whole incident has been (taken place).”
She was asked if the US takes India for granted and the arrest of the diplomat was manifestation of that. The minister also said there are ways and means to convey objection diplomatically which was being done. (PTI)
‘My daughter is being made a scapegoat’
Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade’s father said on Tuesday that his daughter is being made “a scapegoat” and asked UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to intervene to get his daughter back.
“It is the government who has sent my daughter. It is a political issue between these two countries and my daughter is being made a scapegoat,” Devyani’s father Uttam Khobragade said here.
Devyani Khobragade was strip-searched, confined in a cell with drug addicts and also subjected to DNA swabbing.
“Even if she is arrested, she should have been treated with proper dignity. The UPA chairperson should intervene and get my daughter back to the country,” added Khobragade.
He said that he is only concerned with the safety and liberty of his daughter and that he will meet external affairs minister Salman Khurshid.
Khobragade, one of India’s senior diplomats in New York, was charged last week with visa fraud and making false statements. She was accused by Manhattan’s Indian-American US attorney Preet Bharara of visa fraud and exploiting her babysitter and housekeeper.
Earlier on Tuesday, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi declined to meet a US Congressional delegation to highlight India’s strong disapproval of Devyani’s arrest and handcuffing. (IANS)