In the wake of arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, NDA prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi announced that he would not meet the visiting delegation from the United States.
"Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA," Modi posted on his Twitter handle.
Another BJP leader Yashwant Sinha reacted to the news of the arrest saying, "This is savage, barbaric, no words are strong enough to condemn treatment by the US authorities."
Early on Tuesday, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had also turned down the offer to meet the US Congress delegation for humiliating and arresting an Indian IFS in public.
The diplomatic row between the two countries escalated when revelations were made regarding the arrest of Indian Deputy Counsel General Devyani Khobragade.
After a public arrest in New York, the Indian diplomat was subjected to the popular strip search inside the jail premises and kept among drug addicts in a cell.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told ANI, "We have commnicated strongly our discontent. What needs to be done is being done. We are going to address immediate concerns."
Khobragade was arrested on charges of visa fraud for submitting false document and issuing fraudulent speech to the US Department of State for her domestic help. In her documents the-39-year-old diplomat had said that she paid her babysitter and house maid $4500 per month, which was found to be forged. Khobragade was later released on a $250, 000 bail.
Experts even say that she was made a scapegoat for all the Indian diplomats in the past, whose images have been marred by allegations of paying a maid less than promised while hiring - including Ambassador Prabhu Dayal, former Counsel General of India, and Dr Neena Malhotra, former Counsel for Press and Culture.
