The Star Online: Metro: Central
The Star Online: Metro: Central |
| US 'regrets' diplomat treatment as India seethes Posted: 18 Dec 2013 03:17 PM PST WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States on Wednesday voiced regret to India over the treatment of a diplomat whose account of being stripped and cavity-searched triggered outrage. With New Delhi vowing to "restore the dignity" of diplomat Devyani Khobragade, Indian media reported that the 39-year-old was being moved from her post as deputy consul general in New York to the UN mission in a bid to thwart her prosecution. As India retaliated against American diplomats in the usually US-friendly country, Secretary of State John Kerry tried to end the row in a telephone call to India's national security advisor Shivshankar Menon. "As a father of two daughters about the same age as Devyani Khobragade, the secretary empathizes with the sensitivities we are hearing from India about the events that unfolded after Ms. Khobragade's arrest," a State Department statement said. Speaking to Menon, Kerry "expressed his regret, as well as his concern that we not allow this unfortunate public issue to hurt our close and vital relationship with India," it said. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said it was "particularly important to Secretary Kerry that foreign diplomats serving in the United States are accorded respect and dignity just as we expect our own diplomats should receive overseas." The White House also tried to quell the rift, with spokesman Jay Carney saying that "this isolated episode is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful ties that we share." Khobragade was arrested on December 12 in New York for allegedly paying a domestic worker a fraction of the minimum wage and for lying about the employee's salary in a visa application. She is free on bail. The fury in India grew Wednesday after an email from Khobragade in which the diplomat said she had been repeatedly stripped and cavity-searched by the US authorities after her detention. "I must admit that I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a hold-up with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me despite my incessant assertions of immunity," she said in the email. "I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified, thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride." Outrage grows in India The revelation that a diplomat could be subjected to such treatment at the hands of the United States has caused huge offense in a country that sees itself as an emerging world power. In an address to parliament, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said it was his "duty to bring the lady back." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh termed the diplomat's arrest "deplorable" as newspapers hailed his government for a series of reprisal measures. "India takes on Uncle Sam," read the front-page headline of The Hindustan Times, while the Mail Today splashed with "Bulldozer Diplomacy" on top of a picture of a digger dragging away concrete barricades outside the US embassy on Tuesday. US consular officials have also been told to return identity cards that speed up travel into and through India. Import clearances for duty free alcohol and other goods have been suspended. In a separate call, State Department number three Wendy Sherman spoke to Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh and voiced hope that Indian authorities "will continue to fulfill their host government obligations regarding the safety and security of our personnel and mission premises," Harf said. With a general election just months away, the ruling Congress and the nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are both keen to be seen as standing up to the United States over the issue. Yashwant Sinha, a former BJP foreign minister, said Tuesday that India should now arrest the same-sex partners of US diplomats after a court ruling last week that upheld a colonial-era ban on homosexuality. The US Marshals Service confirmed Tuesday that Khobragade had been strip-searched like all other prisoners after being arrested while dropping her two children off at school. Harf said the State Department has not received any notice that India wanted to change Khobragade's credentials to the UN mission. Such a move "would have to be approved by all appropriate authorities" at the UN and State Department, she said.-AFP |
| Killer Indian driver accuses Australia of hatred Posted: 18 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST NEW DELHI: A lawyer for an Indian driver who fled Australia after a fatal car accident said his client would not get a fair trial if extradited because of hatred towards Indian students. Anil Mittal, lawyer for Puneet Puneet, told a New Delhi court he opposed his client's extradition to Melbourne to face trial because of the "hatred towards Indian students in Australia". Mittal cited hate messages on Australian social media sites against Puneet as evidence that his life would be threatened if he returned and that he would not receive a fair trial. Several attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2011 outraged India and led to accusations of racism against migrants, sparking a diplomatic row between the two countries. Mittal also accused Australian police of pressuring Puneet into confessing to the crime but did not give details. "The guilty plea was taken out of him under pressure," the lawyer told the magistrate's court. "We are opposing his extradition. The trial for the charges that he is facing can be held in India." Puneet, 24, who is being held in Delhi's Tihar jail, was in court along with members of his family. The court fixed Jan 9 as the date for the next hearing. — AFP |
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