Diplomat row: Modi refuses to meet US delegation

This in alleged protest against ill treatment of India's Deputy Consul General in New York

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday refused to meet a US delegation as a mark of protest against the alleged ill treatment of India's Deputy Consul General in New York.

The delegation comprising Congressmen George Holding (Republican - North Carolina), Pete Olson (Republican - Texas) David Schweikert (Republican - Arizona), Robert Woodall (Republican - Georgia) and Madeleine Bordallo (Democrat - Guam) was scheduled to meet Modi. The exact schedule was not known. "Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA," the BJP's prime ministerial stated on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Modi's actions was in protest against arrest of Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade who was handcuffed in public on allegations of visa fraud last week in the US. 39-year-old Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody on a street in New York as she was dropping her daughter to school before being released on a USD 250,000 bond after pleading not guilty in court.