India upset at 'unnecessary' reference to Modi by US official

US had imposed a ban on issuing US visas to Modi after the 2002 riot in Gujarat had taken place when he had been CM

India on Thursday conveyed its displeasure over the United States citing the example of the immunity it had given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi from legal proceedings in America in 2014 while defending President Joe Biden administration's recent move to provide similar protection to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

New Delhi subtly indicated that the US State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel could have avoided dragging the name of Modi while defending the move to grant the immunity to Saudi Arabian crown prince from lawsuits filed by murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi's fiancé Hatice Cengiz in a US court.

“I fail to understand how the comment on Prime Minister Modi was either relevant, necessary or contextual,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, told journalists in New Delhi. He was replying to a question on New Delhi’s reaction to Patel’s comment during a media briefing at the US State Department on November 18.

Khashoggi, a well-known critic of the Saudi Arabian royal family, was murdered at the consulate of the kingdom in Istanbul in October 2018.

The US intelligence agencies in November 2018 concluded that the journalist was murdered on orders from the MBS himself.

The recent move by the Biden Administration to grant immunity to Mohammed bin Salman triggered protests in the US, particularly from human rights activists.

The US officials said that Mohammed bin Salman was granted immunity as he had been appointed as the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia by his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in September.

“This is not the first time that the United States has done this. It is a long-standing and consistent line of effort. It has been applied to a number of heads of state previously,” Patel said in response to a question from a journalist on November 18. The US State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson also cited the some examples of the legal immunity being provided to President (Jean-Bertrand) Aristide in Haiti in 1993, President (Robert) Mugabe in Zimbabwe in 2001 and Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi in India in 2014, and President (Joseph Kabila) of Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018. “This is a consistent practice that we have afforded to heads of state, heads of government, and foreign ministers.”

Washington DC had imposed a ban on issuing US visas to Modi after the 2002 riot in Gujarat had taken place when he had been the Chief Minister of the state.

After Modi took over as the prime minister of India in May 2014, the then US administration of President Barack Obama had lifted the ban on him. The Obama Administration had also granted immunity to the prime minister of India from any lawsuit in the US.

Modi had travelled to New York and Washington DC in September 2014 – his first as the Prime Minister of India.

Bagchi on Thursday also said that India valued its relations with the US. He added that the India-US relations were going from strength to strength. “We look forward to deepening it,” the MEA spokesperson said after subtly conveying New Delhi’s displeasure over the remark by the US State Department’s official on the prime minister.