INDIA TARGETS AMERICAN EXPATRIATE CLUB
Hundreds of expatriate Americans use the American Community Support Association club, which has a bar, swimming pool, restaurant and a beauty parlour within the embassy premises
NEW DELHI, Jan 08 (Reuters) – India has told the United States it cannot permit non-diplomats to visit a club at its Delhi embassy, escalating a row over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in New York.
Hundreds of expatriate Americans use the American Community Support Association club, which has a bar, swimming pool, restaurant and a beauty parlor within the embassy premises. The club has been in existence for decades.
The embassy must cease all commercial activities benefiting nondiplomatic staff on its premises by January 16, a government source with direct knowledge of the dispute told Reuters.
India is furious at the December 12 arrest, handcuffing and strip search of its deputy consul in New York, Devyani Khobragade, who prosecutors accuse of underpaying her nanny and lying on a visa application.
Still festering nearly a month on, the row has started to affect the wider relationship between the world's two largest democracies, with one high-level visit already postponed and a visit scheduled for next week by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz now looking doubtful.
India has already taken a number of retaliatory measures and is now stepping up the pressure on Wash- ington ahead of a court appearance by the diplomat due on January 13.
"Basically the thing is that the provision of such facilities to nondiplomats and not paying taxes is clearly not in accordance with the Vienna convention," the government source with knowledge of the dispute told Reuters. "You can't have these facilities inside and not pay taxes and allow non-diplomats," the source said.
A U.S. embassy spokesman was not immediately available for comment.