India removed security barriers from the US Embassy in New Delhi and its lawmakers lobbed other threats Tuesday in retaliation for the arrest of a diplomat in Manhattan for allegedly mistreating her nanny.
The Indian government is furious over the handcuffing and strip-search of Devyani Khobragade, 39, its deputy consul general for political, economic, commercial and women’s affairs. She is accused of lying to get her nanny into the United States and then paying her a paltry $3.31 an hour.
New Delhi cops used tow trucks and a backhoe to dismantle the American Embassy’s long concrete barriers — which are designed to prevent cars from speeding up to its gates in front of the compound.
Asked why the barriers were being removed, one cop sniffed, “They were obstructing traffic on the road.’’
In other acts of aggression:
- Several India officials boycotted a scheduled powwow with a US congressional delegation visiting this week.
- Authorities demanded back special ID cards they issue to US Embassy workers and their families for certain privileges and halted the importing of goods such as alcohol to their commissary.
- Officials vowed to probe the legal status of household help used by US Embassy workers — and what those employees get paid.
- One political leader even suggested locking up the domestic partners of gay diplomats in retaliation for Khobragade’s arrest — following a ruling last week from India’s supreme court that essentially made homosexuality there illegal.
“If American law can apply to Indian diplomats in New York, then Indian law can apply here,’’ seethed former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.
India’s Foreign Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid implied the government would use all its resources in retaliation.
“Everything that can be done will be done” to protest Khobragade’s treatment, told CNN on Tuesday. “I can assure you we take this thing very seriously.”
India officials griped that Khobragade was arrested and handcuffed in front of her daughter’s school and that she was later strip-searched.
Her government complained that she also was cavity-searched and thrown in a cell with drug addicts to await her arraignment before being freed on $250,000 bail.
Khobragade described incident in an e-mail to her colleagues.
“I broke down many times as the indignities of repeated handcuffing, stripping and cavity searches, swabbing, in a holdup with common criminals and drug addicts were all being imposed upon me,” she wrote.
“I got the strength to regain composure and remain dignified thinking that I must represent all of my colleagues and my country with confidence and pride.”
Her arrest is being portrayed as the latest in a series of slights against Indian dignitaries in the United States.
In 2011, former President APJ Abdul Kalam was subjected to two rounds of frisking at JFK Airport — including once after he had been seated on the plane.
The same year, India’s government objected to Meera Sankar, its ambassador to the United States, being patted down at the Jackson-Evers International Airport in Mississippi.
Khobagrade’s lawyer has said he will argue that his client has diplomatic immunity. But US officials say immunity would apply only to a crime committed in connection with her official duties.
They added that protocol was followed in how she was treated during her arrest.
Still, “we understand that this is a sensitive issue for many in India,” said State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf.
“Accordingly, we are looking into the intake procedures surrounding this arrest to ensure that all appropriate procedures were followed and every opportunity for courtesy was extended.”
Khobragade could not be reached for comment on Tuesday about the New Delhi situation.
The diplomat’s dad, in India, called her arrest “obnoxious.”
“As a father, I feel hurt. Our entire family is traumatized,” a tearful Uttam Khobragade told India’s TimesNow TV on Tuesday.
Additional reporting by Rich Calder and Post Wire Services