The United States has sympathised with Krittika Biswas, daughter of an Indian diplomat who has sued New York City for illegally detaining her, but insisted that she did not enjoy any diplomatic immunity.
The managing director of the IMF, doubtless, had diplomatic immunity, but it became irrelevant, while Krittika's immunity was in question, but her humiliation stood condemned. Former ambassador TP Sreenivasan offers an insight into the world of diplomatic immunity
India has conveyed its concern to the United States over the way an Indian diplomat's daughter was arrested in New York.
Ravi Batra said that the Vienna convention on consular relations required the New York City government to inform the consulate of a signatory country if a citizen of that country had been arrested.
Indian Consul General in New York has said the United States State Department is wrong in its reading of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and asserted that diplomatic immunity is extended to family members of consular officers.
The lawsuit is against 11 parties including the city of New York, the city's Department of Education and some of its officials, the principal and teacher concerned of Biswas's school and New York City police commissioner Raymond Kelly.
An Indian diplomat's daughter is suing the New York City government for $1.5 million for what she alleges is a wrongful arrest on the suspicion of sending threatening e-mails to teachers at her school in Queens, a New York borough.
A 17-year-old Indian-American youngster was handcuffed and arrested by police when he went to the rescue of his mother who was harassed and spit on her face by a Chinese national in Flushing area of Queens in New York.
'We have vindicated Krittika's honour, Indian diplomats' honour, and India's honour in the United States,' her attorney Ravi Batra said, announcing a $225,000 settlement won from New York City.
In a tough reciprocal action, India on Tuesday downgraded the immunity of certain category of American diplomats and withdrew the immunity enjoyed by their family members, in a fallout of the arrest of a senior Indian diplomat in New York.
'Unlike Japan and China, the US has a long relationship with India. He is going there to fly the Indian flag in a gesture of friendship. This is a journey like none other, meant to signal that the two democracies are in a defining relationship of the 21st century.'
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