Envoy asked to take off turban in US
Dec. 13: Soon after India’s ambassador to the US, Ms Meera Shankar, was subject to a “pat-down” body search at an American airport, it was disclosed on Monday that security personnel at another airport in the US had recently asked another top Indian diplomat to remove his turban before boarding a plane.
India’s permanent representative at the United Nations, Mr Hardeep Puri, was asked by security officers at Houston airport two weeks ago to remove his turban for checking, but he refused to do so, saying that he would check his own turban, which was permitted under the rules.
When Mr Puri refused to remove his turban, officials kept him waiting for over half an hour in a “holding room” at the airport. The matter could be resolved only after a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official accompanying him intervened.
India has lodged a strong protest with the American authorities through the consulate-general in Houston, sources in New Delhi said.
“I have taken it up with the US authorities and the matter is at that stage. The US secretary of state, Ms Hillary Clinton, has also give an indication that they (will) revisit some of these procedures, particularly with reference to the diplomatic cover of other countries,” the external affairs minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, said in New Delhi.
Reports of the incident sparked outrage across Punjab, with politicians expressing anger at the “insult” shown to the senior Sikh diplomat. The deputy chief minister, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, shot off a letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, demanding that he take the matter up with the US President.
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