“India needs to get message home to US”- Minister
December 17, 2013, 1:17 pm

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister also said that “more steps need to be taken to awaken the US that it’s a changed world.” [Getty Images]

Many Indian Members of Parliament have called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to use reciprocity as a “diplomatic tool”. Most political leaders in the country including the Indian Home Minister Sushil Shinde and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi cancelled the scheduled meetings with a visiting US Congress delegation.

A diplomatic row between India and the US escalated on Tuesday as New Delhi decided to act tough over the arrest and the purported strip search of its ranking diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Police removed security barricades outside the US embassy in New Delhi. India will also withdraw several special privileges awarded to US consul officials in India which were discretionary in nature.

The Parliamentary Affairs Minister also said that “more steps need to be taken to awaken the US that it’s a changed world.”

Sources in the Indian Prime Minister’s Office said New Delhi will not relent till an unconditional apology is tendered by the US on the issue.

“India should take the lead on behalf of a large number of countries in the world to get this message home to the United States,” Nath told The BRICS Post.

Khobragade was charged last week with visa fraud and making false statements.

She was accused by Manhattan’s Indian American US Attorney Preet Bharara of visa fraud and exploiting her babysitter and housekeeper. She was handcuffed in public by law enforcement authorities in New York Thursday while she was dropping her daughter at school.

India News Agency said Khobragade was strip searched, confined to a cell with drug addicts and also subjected to DNA swabbing.

The Indian National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon said the treatment meted out to the Indian diplomat was “barbaric”.

TBP