Indian Ambassador Groped At Mississippi Airport
After she identified herself as an ambassador, she was pulled out of the security and groped, I mean frisked by a TSA employee. Apparently, the motivator was that she was wearing a sari, but that’s speculation at this point.
I don’t know the rules about diplomatic immunity and whatnot, but it seems to me like they should’ve just waved the ambassador through the line. Either that, or the ambassador should’ve chartered a plane.
The hands-on search took place last week even after Meera Shankar’s diplomatic status was revealed.
Some reports said Ms Shankar, who was on her way from a conference, was singled out because she was wearing a sari.
The Indian embassy in Washington has strongly protested about the incident.
The search took place on 4 December at the Jackson-Evers International Airport, news agency Press Trust of India quoted an Indian Embassy official as saying.
Ms Shankar was about to board a flight to Baltimore after attending an event at Mississippi State University.
She was taken to a VIP waiting room despite staff being told that she was an ambassador, he said.
She was later pulled from a security line and patted down by a female Transportation Security Administration agent.
“This is unacceptable to India and we are going to take it up with the US government and I hope things could be resolved so that such unpleasant incidents do not recur,” External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters in Delhi.
