India threatens to review US diplomats' privileges

New Delhi/Washington: Voicing "strong concerns" over the "pat down" frisking of Indian ambassador Meera Shankar at a US airport, India on Saturday summoned US deputy chief of mission Donald Lu and threatened to review privileges granted to US diplomats if such incidents are repeated. India also asked the US to sensitise the authorities at all its airports to cultural and religious sensitivities of foreign diplomats.
Lu was summoned by Javed Ashraf, joint secretary (Americas), to his office at the external affairs ministry in South Block.
Shankar was subjected to the security search at the Jackson-Evers International Airport on Dec 4 when she was about to board a flight to Washington after attending a function at the Mississippi State University.
"We made it clear it was unacceptable," a source in the external affairs ministry said.
According to the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Shankar was singled out from a group of 30 passengers and pulled aside. Witnesses told the paper that she was chosen as she was wearing a sari, and was patted down despite her diplomatic passport.
Ashraf conveyed to the US diplomat that despite the fact that the mission has followed the state department's guidelines for expedited clearance for ambassadors and Shankar had presented her diplomatic identity, the envoy had to undergo enhanced security checking because "as we have been informed she was wearing a sari".
The US diplomat was told that India understood and respected everybody's security procedures, but also expected that normal diplomatic privileges and courtesies are extended to ambassadors and Indian diplomats.
11/12/10 Indo-Asian News Service/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010