Diplomat's arrest: Shinde, Modi and Rahul refuse to meet US delegation
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- Category: Delhi political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:52
Indian diplomat's arrest: Modi, Rahul, Shinde refuse to meet US delegation
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday hardened its stance further against the US for the humiliation meted out to its deputy consul general in New York Devyani Khobragade with Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi refusing to meet a visiting US congressional delegation.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi also refused to meet the visiting US delegation.
"Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA," tweeted the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
Meanwhile, India has asked US to return all ID cards issued to their consular officers posted in the country, the PTI reported quoting government sources.
Earlier, the US virtually justified the reported strip-search by New York police of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, saying "standard procedures" have been followed during her arrest.News by-"Times Of India".
Devyani's father, too, hit out at the US government over her arrest. "First thing, the arrest was wholly unjustifiable, what crime she has done? She is not a murder, she is not a criminal. So I feel this whole arrest was an alibi for something else. Was it such a serious offence that she was arrested on the road and treated in an inhuman way," he said.
Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had on Monday cancelled her meeting with the US Congressional delegation as a mark of protest against the treatment meted out to Devyani in New York.
The 39-year-old Devyani, 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 $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
"We are shocked and appalled at the manner in which she has been humiliated by the US authorities. We have taken it up forcefully with the US government through our embassy in Washington.
"We are also reiterating, in no uncertain terms, to US embassy here that this kind of treatment to one of our diplomats is absolutely unacceptable," Spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akabaruddin had said here while reacting to the treatment meted out to Devyani.(IBN Live)