Diplomat told to remove turban in US

NEW DELHI: Following the furore over Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar being patted down at a US airport , it now emerges that a senior Indian Sikh diplomat was asked to remove his turban at an airport in Houston two weeks ago.
The US authorities, however , allowed India’s permanent representative to the UN, Hardeep Puri, to go after he revealed his diplomatic status . He was allegedly made to wait for 30 minutes before his diplomatic status was verified.

Asked about the incident, foreign minister S M Krishna on Monday said it had strongly taken up the matter with the US authorities, with Hillary Clinton assuring New Delhi that the US was revisiting some of its procedures to avoid such incidents.

“I have taken it up with the US authorities. And the matter is at that stage,” said Krishna . “Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has also given an indication to the fact that they are going to revisit some of these procedures, particularly with reference to diplomatic corps of other countries,” he added.

Later, Puri himself told the media that his turban was not touched by the US authorities. The incident, however, led to a furore back home as its revelation came on the heels of a “pat-down ” search of Indian ambassador to US Meera Shankar at the Jackson-Evers airport in Mississippi on December 4.

GETTING FRISKY

2002 & 2003

Then defence minister George Fernandes strip-searched twice at a Washington airport

Apr 24, 2009

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam frisked by ground staff of American airliner Continental Airlines at IGI airport

Aug 15

Shah Rukh Khan detained for about two hours at Newark airport in the US

Dec 4, 2010

India’s ambassador to the US Meera Shankar patted down at Mississippi airport for wearing a sari

Dec 13

India’s permanent representative to the UN, Hardeep Puri, asked to remove turban

Turban check: Badal writes to PM

Krishna had described Shankar’s experience as unacceptable. He had said there were “certain well-established conventions, well-established practices as to how members of diplomatic corps are treated in a given country” . Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal has shot off a letter to PM Manmohan Singh urging him to ensure that Sikh turbans were not checked and Sikhs were not humiliated at US airports.

Former Indian diplomats have reacted to the latest incident by pointing out that there should be reciprocal treatment of foreign envoys in India . “The issue is not just of diplomats, but also of our Sikh brethren, whose issue we had taken up several times,” former Indian ambassador to US, Ronen Sen, told Times Now.