Action against Indian diplomat outrageous: Left parties

NEW DELHI: Terming the treatment meted out to Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade as "outrageous", Left parties today asked India to take reciprocal measures and get an assurance from the US that it would adhere to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

They also demanded that if the law of the land has to prevail, then Warren Anderson, the key accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, should be handed over to India to face the law here.

"The arrest and the treatment meted out to Khobragade by the American authorities was outrageous. It indicates how the US administration views India and its diplomats," a CPI(M) Politburo said in a statement.

39-year-old diplomat Devyani Khobragade was arrested and handcuffed in public while dropping her daughter to school on Thursday in New York.

"This is not the first time that an Indian diplomat has faced such indignity. Three years ago, the Indian Ambassador to the US, Meera Shankar, was subjected to a pat down security search at a US airport. A similar situation occurred with the India's Permanent Representative at the United Nations," the party statement said

CPI(M) asked the Indian government to "take firm reciprocal measures with regard to US diplomatic missions here". Further, it should "get an assurance from the US that it will adhere to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations with regard to our diplomatic personnel" there.

In a statement, CPI extended support to the Indian action "in retaliation to the arrest and heaping insults on the Indian lady diplomat in USA. The action of Government of India though delayed is in the right direction."

Maintaining that the US action was in violation of diplomatic conventions, it said Washington's "claim that they will punish her according to the law of the land should be extended to all other countries including India."

"Anderson, accused in Bhopal gas case, should be handed over to India and face the case according to Indian laws," the CPI Central Secretariat said.

At the same time, it demanded that the Indian government "should take all steps to defend the rights including minimum wage of house maids and servants, who are working as private employees with our diplomats abroad."