India summons US envoy over vandalisation of Consulate in San Francisco

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the US government was asked to take appropriate measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents

India on Monday lodged a strong protest with the United States over vandalisation of its consulate in San Francisco by pro-Khalistani Sikh activists.

The attack by the Khalistani Sikh activists on the Consulate General of India in San Francisco followed similar vandalism on the High Commission of India in London and the office of the honorary Consul General of India at Brisbane in Australia over the past few days. Some Khalistani activists gathered in front of Parliament of Australia in Canberra even on Monday, protesting against the move to arrest radical preacher Amritpal Singh.

Elizabeth Jones, the Charge d’Affaires of the US embassy in New Delhi, was on Monday summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), where senior officials conveyed to her the concerns of India over the attack on its consulate in San Francisco. “The US government was reminded of its basic obligation to protect and secure diplomatic representation. It was asked to take appropriate measures to prevent recurrence of such incidents,” the MEA stated in a press-release issued in the evening.

Jones was summoned to the MEA just a day after the British Deputy High Commissioner to New Delhi, Christina Scott, had also been called in by the senior diplomats of the Government of India for registering protest over the similar incident in London.

A group of pro-Khalistani Sikh activists stormed into the Consulate General of India in San Francisco on Sunday (Monday in India). They waved the flags of Khalistan, raised slogans slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and condemning the crackdown by the security agencies on the extremists and separatist elements in Punjab in India.

The protesters breached the makeshift security barriers raised by the city police and briefly hoisted two Khalistani flags inside the premises of the consulate. They also damaged the door and windows of the consulate with iron rods.

Not only in New Delhi, but the Embassy of India in Washington D.C. also conveyed its concerns over the incident to the US State Department on Monday.

India had on Sunday lodged a strong protest with the United Kingdom after some pro-Khalistani Sikh activists had similarly vandalized its High Commission in London. The protesters had taken down India’s national flag from the building housing the country’s diplomatic mission in the capital of the United Kingdom. Scott, the British Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi, had been summoned to the MEA late in the evening on Sunday. The senior officials of the MEA had conveyed to Scott the strong protest on behalf of the government over the vandalism of the High Commission of India in London by the “separatist and extremist elements”.

The MEA officials had demanded an explanation from the British Deputy High Commissioner for complete absence of the security agencies of the UK near the diplomatic mission of India in London. The absence of the security personnel had allowed the “separatist and extremist elements” to enter the High Commission premises. She had been reminded in this regard of the basic obligations of the UK Government under the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic Relations, the MEA spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi, said.

Security was beefed up around the High Commission of India in London on Monday and the local police detained a person in connection with the attack.

The High Commission of India in London had come under attacks from pro-Khalistani Sikh activists in the past too. They had joined the pro-Pakistani protesters to vandalize the “India House” to protest against the August 5, 2019 move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and to split the state into two Union Territories. Similar violent protests by the Khalistanis had also been seen in front of the High Commission of India in London during the August 2020 – December 2021 agitation by the farmers in the country against the controversial agricultural laws introduced by the Modi Government.

Several Hindu temples in Australia were also recently vandalised by the Khalistanis this year. Modi, himself, had conveyed to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had come on a visit to New Delhi earlier this month, concerns over the attacks.