India hits back at US

India on Tuesday started hitting back at the United States over the maltreatment of its diplomat Devyani Khobragade by taking a clutch of measures against the US diplomats and their families in India with some moves as symbolic as removing barricades outside US embassy in New Delhi.

US diplomats and their families were asked to surrender their identity cards and their airport passes are being withdrawn after it was known that the Indian diplomat was strip searched and put with drug addicts in a cell in USA after her arrest over an alleged visa fraud.

India has asked the US officials here to submit salary details of their staffers and domestic helps they employed here besides seeking tax details of teachers from USA working in India.
India is stopping all import clearances for the American embassy.
Barricades outside the US embassy in Delhi were removed.

While BJP leaders like Yashwant Sinha went to the extent of asking for arresting gay US diplomats in India since the Supreme Court has now once again criminalized gay sex in India, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said they have communicated their dissent strongly.

“Disquiet very, very strongly felt. We have communicated the dissent we feel,” said Khurshid.
“It is completely unacceptable. We have put in motion what we believe will be an effective way to address this issue and protect her dignity,” he said, adding that “everything that can be done, will be done.”

Following reports of ill-treatment of Indian Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade by the New York Police, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday reportedly refused to meet a US Congressional delegation.

According to latest reports, Khobragade, who was arrested for alleged visa fraud and handcuffed in public view last week, was allegedly stripped and searched at a police station in New York.
She was also allegedly kept in a lockup with common criminals and drug addicts.