The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has refused to meet a visiting US delegation of Congressmen.
Office of the Gujarat Chief Minister on Tuesday announced that Modi refused to meet a US delegation, which wanted to call on him as part of its India visit, following the arrest of an Indian diplomat in America on alleged visa fraud charges recently.
Significantly, the USA has consistently denied a visa to Modi since 2005 in connection with the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat, although there has been a clamour in a section of his supporters for a granting him a visa and he has also addressed his supporters abroad via tele-conferencing.
Following the arrest in New York of Devyani Khobragade, Deputy Consul General, a number of Indian leaders and policy makers have refused to meet a visiting US delegation comprising of five Congressmen. They included Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and National Security Advisor (NSA) Shiv Shankar Menon.
In a statement, Modi’s office said the “misbehaviour” meted out to the Indian diplomat by the US Government has been roundly criticised by India. “The Chief Minister, too, has supported the move and refused to grant an appointment to the US delegation.”
Reports from New Delhi said the Indian Government had asked the US to return IDs issued to all its consular officers posted in the country, indicating a possible review of immunity and benefits they enjoyed, to mark its protest to the 1999-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Khobragade’s arrest.
She had been taken into custody last week on a street as she was dropping her child to school, and handcuffed in public. After she pleaded not-guilty in a court, she was released on a $250,000 bond.