Adopting a tough stand, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday refused to meet a visiting US congressional delegation to show India’s displeasure over the treatment meted out to Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York.
Media reports have suggested that Khobragade was “strip-searched” after her arrest in New York. The report has made a diplomatic row between India and the US uglier.
Notably, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon have already cancelled their meetings with the US MPs.
The US has, however, suggested it had merely followed “standard procedures”.
The US State Department sought to pass the buck to the justice department and the local police.
“The State Department’s Diplomatic Security followed standard procedures during the arrest,” spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters on Monday when asked why the US was not respecting basic courtesies to a diplomat as it expected others to respect its own diplomats.
“After her arrest, she was passed on to the US marshals for intake and processing. So for any additional questions on her treatment, obviously, this would be the US Marshals and not us. I would refer you there,” she said.
—IANS