Meera Shankar?s frisking ?unacceptable? for India

MIssissippi/New Delhi : Voicing strong protest against frisking of Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar at an US airport, India?s External Affairs minister SM Krishna on Thursday said it was completely ?unacceptable? to India.

India will also take up the issue with the US authorities so that such incident do not recur.

?Let me be frank, this is unacceptable to India. We are going to take it up with the government of US that such unpleasant incidents do not recur,? Krishna said.

?I am rather surprised by the way the Indian ambassador to the US has been treated. This has happened for a second time in three months,? he added.

Krishna pointed that that there were “certain well-established conventions, well-established practices as to how members of diplomatic corps are treated in a given country” and hoped that such incidents do not come in thw way of ?very codial relationship? between the two countries.

Meera Shankar was reportedly ?patted down? at the US airport on December four.

A police officer escorted Shankar to Jackson-Evers International Airport for a flight to Baltimore, and she was taken to a VIP waiting room.

The officer informed airport police that Shankar was an ambassador, but she was later pulled from a security line and patted down by a female Transportation Security Administration agent.

Witnesses said she was subjected to hands-on search.

The Clarion-Ledger newspaper of Jackson quoted witnesses as saying Shankar was told she was singled out for additional screening because of her dress, a sari that she wore.

Shankar was about to board a flight to Baltimore after attending the Mississippi State University’s programme.

The hands-on search last week embarrassed the university officials, who invited Shankar to give a speech for an international studies program.

?It was a wonderful program, maybe the best we’ve had, (but) this stupid incident ruined the whole thing,? said Janos Radvanyi, chairperson of Mississippi State University’s international studies department. ?We are sending her a letter of apology.?

The Transportation Security Administration said the diplomats are not exempt from the searches and that Shankar ?was screened in accordance with TSA’s security policies and procedures.?

The TSA spokesman, Nicholas Kimball, said there are a number of factors that could prompt a pat-down, including bulky clothing, but he said the agency doesn’t generally discuss specific cases.

Radvanyi said it took weeks to arrange for Shankar to speak at the program, but he’s concerned she won’t return and that her treatment at the airport might discourage other international guests from coming.