Will India now act against gay US diplomats?

New Delhi: With the Supreme Court once again criminalising same-sex relationships under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), will the Indian government take action against self-declared gay American diplomats who have sought diplomatic immunity for their same-sex partners?

With India threatening more actions against US diplomats until Washington renders an “unconditional apology” over the mistreatment of an Indian diplomatic official in New York, there is talk in official circles of invoking Section 377 of the IPC to book these diplomats and their partners under Indian laws, sources confirmed to IANS.

The US action also came in for condemnation by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including former external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, who said the government should punish same sex companions of US diplomats in India following the Supreme Court ruling against gay sex.

“Media has reported that we have issued visas to a number of US diplomats’ companions. ‘Companions’ means that they are of the same sex. Now, after the Supreme Court ruling, it is illegal in our country, just as paying less wages was illegal in the US.

“So, why does not the Government of India go ahead and arrest them and punish them,” Sinha said.

Diplomatic relations between countries are governed under the Vienna Convention for Diplomatic Relations and the Vienna Convention for Consular Relations under the principle of reciprocity. So when a country is seen to act against the Conventions against a country’s diplomats or embassy, the other country is well within its right to take reciprocal measures against the country.

Officials said the Indian government has in its knowledge many such American diplomats who have declared they had same-sex relationships and have sought immunity and other diplomatic facilities for their partners.

“We know who they are and, if we want, we can take action against them under Indian laws,” said one source with access to official thinking.

“But the fact remains that, under the law of the land, these are now illegal relationships and hence these people can be subject to criminal prosecution for which they do not enjoy diplomatic immunity,” the source said.

Officials, especially those who have dealt closely with the US, said Washington only understands tough language and gave the example of how the US suddenly withdrew certain tax priviliges to Indian diplomats about 10 years ago. In retaliaton, India imposed service tax liabilities on the US embassy operations here.

When the US embassy petitioned the government against the tax, they were told it could only be done if the tax privileges to Indian diplomats were restored. The US subsequently restored those privileges and New Delhi followed suit.

The latest diplomatic fracas escalated after Devyani Khobragade, the deputy consul general in New York, was arrested, handcuffed and humiliatingly strip searched, under what the US police calls its “standard procedures” after she was found to violate visa regulations for her Indian househelp.