Diplomat told to remove turban in US

New Delhi: Following the furore over Indian ambassador to the US Meera Shankar being patted down at a US airport, it now emerges that a senior Indian Sikh diplomat was asked to remove his turban at an airport in Houston two weeks ago.
The US authorities, however, allowed India's permanent representative to the UN, Hardeep Puri, to go after he revealed his diplomatic status. He was allegedly made to wait for 30 minutes before his diplomatic status was verified.
Asked about the incident, foreign minister S M Krishna on Monday said it had strongly taken up the matter with the US authorities, with Hillary Clinton assuring New Delhi that the US was revisiting some of its procedures to avoid such incidents.
"I have taken it up with the US authorities. And the matter is at that stage," said Krishna. "Secretary of state Hillary Clinton has also given an indication to the fact that they are going to revisit some of these procedures, particularly with reference to diplomatic corps of other countries," he added.
Later, Puri himself told the media that his turban was not touched by the US authorities. The incident, however, led to a furore back home as it came close on the heels of a "pat-down" search of Indian ambassador to US Meera Shankar at the Jackson-Evers airport in Mississippi on December 4.
14/12/10 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010