NEW DELHI: Government today earned a rare praise from senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha who said it had shown “some courage” in dealing with the US over diplomat Devyani Khobragade issue.
Sinha, former External Affairs Minister, advocated tough action against US diplomats in India if they were found violating rules and laws, as a tit-for-tat measure.
“They (government) have shown some courage in taking some of the steps and there is commitment of the External Affairs Minister (Salman Khurshid) in Parliament to take further steps,” he told PTI.
Angry over handcuffing and strip search of Khobragade, India’s Deputy Consul General in New York, the government has retaliated strongly by initiating a series of reprisal steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the embassy.
Sinha said the government should move legally against USA personnel here who are in violation of Indian laws.
“It’s not only Section 377 of IPC, there are a number of laws. They have not paid Income Tax, they have done other illegal acts, then 377 of course is there. Whatever laws they have violated, the government should allow police to investigate and handcuff them and take them to Tihar jail,” said the BJP leader.
India has been outraged over the arrest of Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, on a street in New York over visa fraud charges as she was dropping her daughter to school. At the Congress press briefing, party spokesperson Sandip Dikshit said “the US action in this entire episode is deplorable and it is very clear that there is something which is unjustified.”
He was asked to comment on the US government’s remarks that they cannot take back the charges leveled against Devyani Khobragade.
“Our Embassy is working with the US State government and the local authorities there,” he said. -PTI
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