In a further strain in New Delhi-Washington ties, Indian authorities on Friday asked the U.S. embassy not to screen movies at the American Centre without obtaining licence.
The directive will come into effect on January 20, sources said.
At present, the American Centre screens movies for select audiences without licence.
The sources said the notice, which was served on the American Centre on Friday, set a January 20 deadline for compliance with Indian laws and Delhi government regulations. Failure to do so would mean the American Centre could not screen films from January 21, the sources said.
This is the fallout of the diplomatic stand-off over the handcuffing and strip-search of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade. But Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at a press conference on Friday, termed the arrest of Ms. Khobragade “temporary aberration” in India-U.S. strategic relationship, calling for a chance to diplomacy to resolve the issue.
Correction
>>The PTI report, “U.S. Embassy told not to screen movies at American Centre” (Jan. 5, 2014), erroneously said a deadline of 20th January, 2013 had been given to the American Centre to comply with the Government of India laws and Delhi Government regulations. It should have been 20th January, 2014 .
Incidentally, the report filed by a staff reporter - “India asks U.S. Embassy not to screen movies without licence” (Jan. 5, 2014) – on the same subject but carried on a different page, gave the deadline correctly. Detail wise, however, it was a repetition.
