Outraged by the “humiliating” detention and strip search of a female Indian deputy consul in New York last week, New Delhi has ordered a series of retaliatory measures against the US diplomatic corps in India.
The Indian government had taken measures in response to the arrest, with foreign minister Salman Khurshid calling the treatment of Devyani Khobragade “completely unacceptable.”
“We have put in motion what we believe would be effective
ways of addressing the issue but also in motion such steps that
need to be taken to protect her dignity,” Khurshid told
reporters in New Delhi.
“We have ordered the withdrawal of all ID cards that are issued
by the Ministry of External Affairs to the officials at the US
consulates across India,” a senior ministry source told AFP
on condition of anonymity.
In addition, local media reports that the government is also
considering imposing a ban on import clearances for the American
diplomats as well as canceling airport clearances for US
officials in India.
Authorities are also requesting salary information of Indian
staff in US missions across the country as well as visa details
of teachers employed in consulate-run schools, the Hindu reports.
On Tuesday police removed all security concrete barricades
outside the US embassy and consulates that provided an extra
layer of protection on public land for American diplomatic
premises. The police and government employees did not officially
comment on why the barricades were taken away.
Delhi Police removing barricades from outside US Embassy pic.twitter.com/7TwWjc8kmK
— ANI (@ANI_news) December 17, 2013
The government’s reprisal measures were supported by the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), that called on the authorities to
“match each and every step of the US, to take serious action
in this matter to establish Indian sovereignty and prestige of
its diplomatic community,’’ the Hindu Times quotes.
The US actions do “not accord to the level of friendship that
the Indian government claims to have with the US,’’ BJP
leader Ravishankar Prasad said.
“The media has reported that we have issued visas to a number
of US diplomats' companions. Companions means that they are of
the same sex. Now, after the Supreme Court ruling (on gay sex),
it is completely illegal in our country. Just as paying fewer
wage was illegal in the US. So, why doesn't the Government of
India go ahead and arrest all of them! Put them behind bars,
prosecute them in this country and punish them?" Prasad was
quoted by local channels.
“If they are downgrading what we are entitled to as
diplomats, they will also get the same treatment. This way we
will both be going strictly by the rules,’’ another Indian
diplomat told the Hindu Times.
The scandal is also resonating at the top political level. On
Tuesday, the country’s Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde
cancelled his meeting with a senior US Congressional delegation
calling the treatment of the arrested diplomat unacceptable.
Vice-President, Rahul Gandhi, and BJP prime ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi also cancelled the meeting with American
representatives.
Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 17, 2013
On Monday Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon also refused to meet the US team, with Menon describing Khobragade's treatment as “despicable and barbaric.”
India's deputy consul general in the US, 39-year-old Devyani
Khobragade, was arrested on Thursday while dropping her daughter
to school. She was handcuffed in public. Later, local tabloids
read that she was “subjected to a humiliating strip search and
kept in a cell with drug addicts.”
The US Marshals Service confirmed Tuesday that she had been
subject to strip-search.
“Yes, Devyani Khobragade was subject to the same search
procedures as other USMS arrestees held within the general
prisoner population in the Southern District of New York,”
the statement said, as cited by MSN.
A US court has released the diplomat on a $250,000 bail. The next
hearing has been set for January 13. On Friday, New Dehli called
in the US ambassador to protest against such treatment.
Khobragade is accused of falsifying a visa application for an
Indian national who was employed by her from November 2012 to
June 2013 allegedly for less than four dollars an hour, an
offence which carries maximum sentences of 10 years in prison.
On Tuesday, US State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf
said Washington was reviewing the incident “to ensure that all
appropriate procedures were followed and every opportunity for
courtesy was extended.”
“The United States and India enjoy a broad and deep
friendship, and this isolated episode is not indicative of the
close and mutually respectful ties we share,” she said in a
statement.
A day earlier Harf noted that US authorities “followed standard procedures” during the arrest claiming that Khobragade did not have full diplomatic immunity as it only applies to duties performed as a consular official.
The father of the diplomat, Uttam Khobragade, claimed that the
Indian government supports Devyanmet after he met with the Union
Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Tuesday.
“The home minister has said the government is answerable for her
security and liberty. The whole government is supporting us and
that she was on duty, and hasn’t committed any crime. What
happened was absolutely atrocious. She is liable for diplomatic
immunity,” Khobragade was quoted by dnaindia.com as saying.
“The government will try to get the charges against her dropped.
He also assured us that no harm will be done to her,” he
added.