Pat-down search of envoy not good public diplomacy: India

New Delhi: India on Friday said the 'pat-down' search of Ambassador Meera Shankar at a US airport was not good public diplomacy and that it was awaiting a report from its embassy in Washington over the incident before it can take up the matter with American authorities.
"We have also asked our embassy in Washington to give us a detailed report on the incident. We haven't as yet received that, but we will be certainly looking at that before we take further action," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters here.
Disapproving of the treatment meted out to Shankar, she said, "It wasn't good public diplomacy and we will certainly be speaking with the American embassy here".
Rao said the Ministry of External Affairs has already been in touch with the American embassy on some previous instances though not exactly of the same nature.
"We have an ongoing discussion with them on this and we will take it up," the Foreign Secretary said.
Shankar was pulled from an airport security line on December 4 and patted down by an American security agent in Mississippi despite being told of her diplomatic status.
10/12/10 Indian Express

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Categories: Airports Dec 2010, Foreign Dec 2010