India retaliates

Catches ‘Uncle Sam’ by his collar Govt demands unconditional apology

How India hit back at US

• US diplomats to surrender ID cards issued to them and their families
• Airport passes for consulates, import clearances for embassy withdrawn
• Delhi police remove barricades outside the sprawling US embassy
• Details like salaries paid to Indian staff in US consulates, including those working as domestic helps with the families of American officials, sought.
• Delhi also asked for visa details of all teachers at US schools, details of salaries and bank accounts
• Yashwant Sinha demands action against homosexuals among US diplomatic staff in India

New Delhi: Taking the United States Administration head on for the humiliation heaped on Indian Deputy Consul-General in New York Devyani Khobrgade, the government on Tuesday retaliated with stern measures against the US.

The government dismantled all the barricades at the US embassy in the capital, scaling down the level of security.

As Devyani Khobragade was dropping her daughter to school in New York, the 1999-batch IFS officer was strip-searched and put behind bars, after she was publicly hand-cuffed and arrested on the streets of New York, on visa fraud charges. Later, she was released on a $ 250,000 bond, after pleading not guilty in court. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said the US should tender unconditional apology to India over the public humiliation of its diplomat. Kamal Nath warned that more steps need to be taken to awaken the US that it is a changed world.

Standing up for Devyani Khobragade, India hit back, by asking all the US diplomats to return ID cards issued to them in the country. The move may be a precursor to reviewing immunity and benefits enjoyed by the US Consular officers in India. All import clearances of the US Embassy staff have been stalled. India has also sought details of the salaries paid by the US to the Indian staff in their Consulates in India, including the salaries paid to the domestic helps.

The government has made it clear that there is no question of taking back these measures, until Devyani Khobragade is released. She should be released and allowed to leave the country, it was pointed out. In a related development, Speaker Meira Kumar, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde cancelled their meetings with the US Congressional delegation. National Security Adviser (NSA) dubbed the treatment meted out to Khobragade as “barbaric, despicable.” While the arrest is seen as an insult to national sovereignty and internationally-accepted norms of diplomatic immunity, her strip-search and being kept in the police station cell along with drug-addicts and sex-workers has added fuel to fire. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh had summoned US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell to lodge a strong protest over what was described as unacceptable treatment.

Significantly, Devyani Khobragade had registered a complaint in a New Delhi court earlier this year against her domestic help, Sangeeta Richard. This was done after Devyani was harassed by Sangeeta Richard, with demands for more money. Devyani got a boost when the court in Delhi issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Sangeeta Richard.

In September, the Delhi High Court issued an injunction restraining the maid from instituting any action or proceedings against Devyani outside India.