Indo-US spat started with Bangladesh

There is now enough evidence to suggest that the US State Department cleared the arrest of Indian deputy consul in New York Devyani Khobragade on visa fraud charges when Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was in Washington.

"There were several contentious issues that Sujatha Singh raised with the US officials and Bangladesh topped our list of differences," said a senior official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

“We have reasons to believe the State Department cleared Devyani's arrest to send us a strong message so that we buckle down,” added the official who was not willing to be named.

He said that the State Department earlier prevented the New York police and attorney's office to proceed against several Russian diplomats involved in an alleged insurance fraud.

"The scale of that fraud was much more severe than the charges levelled against Devyani, who stands accused of furnishing wrong information about her maid in visa application and paying her less than committed wages," the official pointed out.

"But the State Department stopped the action against the Russians for fear of retaliation by Moscow with even the Russian Foreign Minister threatening that," he said.

The official said the US was very upset with India's position on Bangladesh.

"The differences are well known and there is no need for a repeat, but when Sujatha Singh made India's position loud and clear, the Americans were less than amused," he said.

"Perhaps they tried sending us a strong message."

"Now the whole nation has approved of the strong message we are sending back to Washington, that we will not take it lying down," he said.

"This is not done to friends if US feels we are one. But as on so many previous occasions, we have shown we are friendly and not weak.

“And on such issues where the nation's prestige is involved, there is complete political consensus and everyone will join us in protest."

India on Tuesday hit back with a series of counter-measures against US diplomats based in India, after Indian Deputy Consul General Khobragade sent an email back home saying she was deeply humiliated by the US authorities.

She said in the email that she was nabbed from in front of her child's school, handcuffed and repeatedly strip-searched in prison, besides being subjected to DNA swabbing and cavity searchers along with drug addicts.

Now the Indians have rolled out a series of counter-measures in a tit-for-tat move to indicate Delhi will not take it lying down.

-- All US diplomats must submit details of salaries paid to their servants, maids, gardeners and other domestic servants to the Indian authorities.

-- All American Schools must submit details of salaries paid to teachers and their bank account details, to be forwarded to Income Tax department for tax compliance.

-- All security barriers allowed to be erected on Nyaya Marg in the diplomatic enclave Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, for security purposes for the US embassy, will now be dismantled.

-- All import clearances given to US diplomats for importing fine food, wine and other costly items, as exemptions under customs duty rules, stand revoked.

-- All US diplomats working in consulates across India have been asked to return their IDs and airport passes to Indian authorities.

These counter-measures follow the refusal of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon to meet a top-level bipartisan US Congressional delegation presently in New Delhi.

Rahul and Shinde on Tuesday refused to meet the Republican and Democrat Congressmen, to highlight India's strong disapproval of the arrest, handcuffing and strip-search of diplomat Khobragade in New York last week.

So did Modi, widely tipped to be India’s next Prime Minister.

On Monday, Speaker Meira Kumar and Shivshankar Menon had cancelled their meetings separately with the visiting US delegation.

Meira Kumar on Monday called off a meeting with a US bi-partisan Congressional delegation.

The Lok Sabha Speaker was angry not only because Khobragade was a dalit (lower caste) like her, but because the New York policemen did this to a woman diplomat, a mother of two.

The NSA described the treatment meted out to Khobragade as "barbaric" and "despicable".

But curiously, the Ministry of External Affairs rolled out the red carpet with the Minister Salman Khurshid personally welcoming the US delegation.

That provoked the Opposition BJP with former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha suggesting all US diplomats who are homosexuals should be arrested because homosexuality is now a crime under Indian law.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley said India should deal with the US "strictly on reciprocity".

India has already condemned this treatment saying it was "unacceptable".

According to latest reports available, the US is reviewing arrest of Khobragade, with a furious India taking several steps to make its displeasure public.

State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf acknowledged it was a "sensitive issue", reports the Economic Times.

"Accordingly, we are looking into the intake procedures surrounding this arrest to ensure that all appropriate procedures were followed and every opportunity for courtesy was extended," she said in a statement.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh has already summoned US Ambassador in Delhi Nancy Powell and told her that bilateral relations will suffer badly unless Washington made amends.

Khobragade, a diplomat enjoying immunity under the Vienna Convention, was publicly handcuffed by New York police, packed off inside a police car, strip-searched in custody, and kept inside a lockup with sex workers, drug addicts and common criminals.

All this happened even as the 1999 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) diplomat kept protesting that she enjoyed immunity under the Vienna Convention.

The Deputy Consul General was going to drop her children to school, when she went through the horrendous ordeal.