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India, US try to tone down row

News Delhi demands apology, case to be dropped after Kerry expresses regret

AFP, New Delhi
India yesterday urged the United States to drop the case against a female diplomat who was arrested and strip-searched and apologise for her "terrible" treatment, ratcheting up pressure in the blistering diplomatic row.
US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed "regret" over the episode in New York, and India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid said he hoped the "valuable relationship" with Washington would soon return to an even keel.
But in a sign of the bruised pride and humiliation felt in India, Khurshid reiterated calls for the visa fraud case against the diplomat to be withdrawn and branded her treatment as "terrible".
"We have asked for the case to be dropped and withdrawn ... we are not convinced that there are legitimate grounds for pursuing it," Khurshid told foreign journalists.
"I cannot believe if a US senator was arrested he would be put through this behaviour....! would rather not prejudge. Let us allow the
American government to respond."
Kerry tried to end the row in a phone call to India's national security adviser on Wednesday, expressing regret and stressing concern that the issue not be allowed to hurt a "vital relationship."
But Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath said "a mere regret won't make us happy. They must offer a clear apology and accept that they made a mistake, that is what we will be satisfied with."
The row was sparked by last
Thursday's arrest of Devyani Khobragade, India's deputy consul general at its mission in New York, as she dropped her children off at school.
The 39-year-old, who is now free on bail, was detained over allegations that she paid an Indian domestic worker in New York a fraction of the minimum wage and lied about the employee's salary in a visa application.
Subsequent revelations that she was strip-searched have caused outrage in India and prompted a series of reprisals, including the
removal of protective barricades outside the American embassy.
However Preet Bharara, the US federal prosecutor handling her case, has insisted Khobragade was arrested in the "most discreet" way possible, was not handcuffed and was "fully searched" by a female deputy marshal in private as part of standard procedure.
Khurshid confirmed India was transferring Khobragade to its UN mission in New York to secure her full diplomatic immunity, instead of the partial immunity she currently has. However such a move could prove complicated as any change of designation requires the US State Department's approval.
In an interview with Indian television, Khurshid acknowledged there was "a sense of hurt" over the treatment of the diplomat at a time when the Obama administration is looking to bolster ties with Delhi.
"Things happen between friends, even things that are terrible," he told theCNN-IBN network.
"My duty is not to allow anyone to damage relations," he also told reporters. "We hope it will return (to