The nine-year American visa ban on Narendra Modi will automatically be lifted and he would enjoy diplomatic immunity if the Bharatiya Janata Party leader becomes the prime minister of India, according to a Congressional report.
India on Friday spoke in conciliatory language on the issue of its senior diplomat Devyani Khobragade case, saying that it was important to "preserve" the "valuable" bilateral relationship even as the United States ruled out the demand for dropping of the charges against her.
India should fulfill its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the State Department insists.
The US state department has reportedly given a final nod to Pakistan's request for military hardware
The United States has agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the arrest of an Indian diplomat has caused hiccups in bilateral ties, but said it is now focused on getting the relationship back on really strong footing.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who expressed regret over the arrest and strip-search of Devyani Khobragade, was aware of the senior Indian diplomat's arrest.
S Jaishankar, the new Indian ambassador to the United States, on Thursday met top officials of the State Department to convey India's strong protest over the arrest of its senior diplomat in New York over visa fraud charges, even though she had diplomatic immunity.
The US has said that it was time to get past the recent tensions with India and the two sides should move on, days after arrest of an American police officer at New Delhi airport for possessing bullets. "We've said we want to get past some of the tensions that have been there over the past several months and move on," state department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said.
In a strong retaliation, India on Tuesday initiated a slew of steps to strip US diplomats and their families of privileges including withdrawing all airport passes and stopping import clearances for the US embassy, terming as "barbaric" the arrest and strip searching of India's Deputy Consul General in New York Devyani Khobragade.
Al Qaeda, which has announced the creation of a separate wing for India, wants to portray Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an enemy of Islam and as such India should take its threat "very seriously", a well-known American counter-terror expert said on Friday even as the United States tried to downplay the terrorist outfit's capabilities.
The United States has increased security at all its major airports and railway stations, and has taken a number of measures, that include temporary closure of its 22 diplomatic missions, following a "very specific" Al Qaeda threat emanating from the Arabian Peninsula.
'This arrest was totally unnecessary and disproportionate to the gravity of charges. What was truly required was a more measured and calculated approach, keeping in mind the strain such an action could cause to the growing bilateral relationship between these two great nations.' Indian-American organisations condemn Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade's arrest.
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