BJP slams US for 'shameful' behaviour towards Indian diplomat

NEW DELHI: The BJP today slammed the US for its "shameful and barbaric" behaviour towards Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade in New York and asked the government to take up the matter strongly with the American establishment.

Talking to reporters outside Parliament, BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad also took a dig at the UPA government saying treatment given to the Indian diplomat by the US "does not accord to the level of friendship that the Indian government claims to have with the US".

"The way she was arrested after being handcuffed, kept with drug addicts and strip-searched in the police station, that is condemnable, reprehensible and regrettable and in clear violation of conventions," he said.

The BJP leader said there was a clear pattern in the behaviour of the US as earlier a "former President of India was given a totally unacceptable treatment. Democratically elected leaders are being denied visa, that is a separate chapter altogether and now this behaviour with our diplomat."

Prasad said India was a sovereign country and wondered how would the US react if India decides to treat American diplomats in the same manner.

"We would urge the Indian government, which tries to match each and every step of the US, to take serious action in this matter to establish the Indian sovereignty and prestige of its diplomatic community," he said.

Asked if the American case against Khobragade looked 'bogus', he said, "Yes, it looks like. That requires deeper inquiry and comment. She is a senior diplomat and a lady."

39-year-old Khobragade, 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 USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.