Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar cancelled her meeting with a U.S. Congressional delegation here on Monday in protest against the handcuffing of India’s Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon also did not meet the Congressmen, apparently for the same reason, said sources.
Ms. Kumar, a former IFS officer, cancelled the meeting because she felt it was not appropriate to meet the parliamentarians after a senior Indian diplomat had received such shoddy treatment and the U.S. authorities had not been remorseful about it.
The delegation consisted of four Republican Congressmen — George Holding (North Carolina), Pete Olson (Texas) David Schweikert (Arizona), Robert Woodall (Georgia) — and a democrat Madeleine Bordallo (Guam).
Meanwhile, media reports this week said after her arrest Ms. Khobragade was apparently “strip searched”. While none of the reports named the “sources” that provided this information, Daniel Arshack, attorney for Ms. Khobragade, told The Hindu earlier that she had been “treated incredibly shabbily,” in what he described as a “public spectacle.” Mr. Arshack on Monday said he did not have any comment on whether she was strip searched and could not provide any further details on the condition of her detention.
(With inputs from Narayan Lakshman in Washington)
