New Delhi: In a strong retaliation, India on Tuesday initiated a slew of steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the US embassy, terming as "barbaric" the arrest and strip searching of India's Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
The government has asked all US Consulate personnel and their families to turn in their ID cards immediately which will "now be downgraded on par with with what the US provides to our Consulates there", sources said.
Also read: India takes 'very seriously' on the treatment given to diplomat in US
Key information such as salaries paid to all Indian staff employed at the consulates and by Consulate officers and families including as domestic helps has also been sought by the government apart from visa and other details of all teachers in US schools and pay and bank accounts of Indians in these schools.
Government has also stopped all import clearances including for liquor for the US embassy. Also, the traffic barricades near the US embassy on Nyaya Marg here will be lifted except the picket.
Also read - Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade strip-searched
39-year-old Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer posted as Deputy Consul General in New York, was taken into custody last week on visa fraud charges as she was dropping her daughter to school before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.
Meanwhile, the US virtually justified the reported strip search by New York police of Khobragade, saying "standard procedures" have been followed during her arrest.
Read here: Parties demand apology from US, support tit-for-tat response
"Diplomatic Security, which is under the State Department purview, followed standard procedures during her arrest," State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf told reporters at a daily news conference in Washington.
She was asked about reports that the Indian diplomat was strip searched and confined with drug addicts after her detention apart from being subjected to DNA swabbing.
Reacting sharply, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon said, "It is despicable and barbaric".
The strong comments by the NSA came as Indian leaders, including Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, refused to meet a US Congressional delegation as a mark of protest over the treatment meted out to the senior diplomat.
Also read: Father of diplomat meets Sushilkumar Shinde
On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Menon also had cancelled their meetings with the US delegation.
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).
The diplomat's father Uttam Khobragade met External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday seeking their help in getting justice for her.
Khurshid asserted that the government has taken "very seriously" Khobragade's arrest by the US and that it has "put in motion" the process to deal with the issue in an "effective way". "He told me everything about the incident.
Immediately, I have spoken to the concerned people for action. She will get justice," Shinde told reporters after the meeting. Earlier, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh had summoned US Ambassador Nancy Powell and issued a demarche in this regard.
Significantly, the Association of Indian Foreign Service Officers, under the Presidentship of the Foreign Secretary, was meeting to discuss the issue.
The US action also came in for condemnation by BJP leaders including former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who said the government should punish same sex companions of US diplomats in India following the Supreme Court ruling against gay sex.
"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, it is completely illegal in our country, just as paying less wages was illegal in the US.
"So, why does not the Government of India go ahead and arrest them and punish them," Sinha said.
India not a 'banana republic': Kamal Nath
Union Minister Kamal Nath on Tuesday said India cannot be treated as a 'banana republic' and that US should tender an unconditional apology over the arrest and strip searching of Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade in New York.
Stating that he appreciated the raft of retaliatory measures taken by the Ministry of External Affairs in the aftermath of the incident, Nath said the US should step out of the mindset that there are still 'banana republics in the world'.
"The US and other countries should recognize the dignity and respect of other countries. They cannot deal with other countries in such a manner," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said, as political parties closed ranks to condemn the US police action.
"The incident with the Indian diplomat is not just merely unfortunate. Calling it unfortunate will be putting it mildly. The incident should be condemned," Nath said.
Nath said he thought more such steps like the measures announced should follow until the US issues an unconditional apology on the matter.
"The US needs to be awakened, that this is a changed world. I think India should give a lead to other countries to get this home to the US. There is a need for paradigm shift and reciprocity while dealing with other countries," Nath added.
Next: Devyani put through cavity search like criminals by US
Indian diplomat put through cavity search like criminals by US
Washington: Senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, arrested in New York on charges of visa fraud, was put through both strip and cavity searches, procedures normally used for criminals.
The 39-year-old deputy Consul General in New York, after being arrested and handcuffed in public while dropping her daughter to school on Thursday, was detained with sex workers and drug addicts, sources said.
"As a diplomat, she is entitled to certain courtesies. Let alone the courtesies, she was subjected to strip and cavity searches like a ordinary criminal," a source said.
When asked about the matter, US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf did not deny that the diplomat was made to go through the searches but maintained 'standard procedures' were followed during her arrest.
Evading a direct answer to questions on whether Khobragade was strip-searched and confined with drug addicts after her detention, Harf said, "Diplomatic Security, which is under the State Department purview, followed standard procedures during her arrest."
However, she referred allegations regarding the inhuman treatment of Khobragade to US Marshalls, saying the diplomat was handed over to them by the Diplomatic Security.
"Our Diplomatic Security folks followed our standard procedures, which I'm assuming are standard for diplomats because that's who our Diplomatic Security deals with," she said.
During her daily news conference, Harf said under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Indian Deputy Consul General enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts only for acts performed in the exercise of consular functions.
"There's different kinds of immunity. This isn't just in the US; it's all around the world. So in this case, she fell under that specific kind of immunity, and would be liable to arrest pending trial pursuant a felony arrest warrant," she said.
