TMC MP moves privilege motion against S Jaishankar for ‘misleading’ remarks on US deportations
Sagarika Ghose said that despite the foreign minister’s assurance to Parliament, the second batch of deportees were also shackled.
Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose on Friday filed a privilege motion against External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for his allegedly misleading statement about the deportation of Indians from the United States, The Hindu reported.
Ghose said that despite Jaishankar’s assurance that the deportees would not be mistreated, the second batch of deported Indian citizens who arrived on February 16 were also shackled.
On February 6, Jaishankar told the Rajya Sabha that the 104 Indian citizens who were deported on a US military flight that arrived in Amritsar on February 5 were shackled in keeping with past procedure.
“The standard operating procedure for deportation by aircraft used by [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement], that has been effective from 2012, provides for the use of restraints,” the external affairs minister told the Rajya Sabha. He said that New Delhi was informed by US authorities “that women and children are not restrained”.
He added that Indian authorities are engaging with the United States to ensure that “the returning deportees are not mistreated in any manner during the flight”.
Ghose, in her breach of privilege motion, referred to statements from deportees on subsequent flights, which she said contradicted the minister’s remarks made in the House.
She took up the example of one individual who was allegedly forced to remove his turban, which was then discarded in a dustbin. She called it a “deeply offensive act against Sikh religious sentiments and rights” and further alleged that the deportees were tortured and given insufficient food, some of which was “half-cooked”.
Ghosh contended that Jaishankar’s statement in the Rajya Sabha “contained misleading and incomplete information, violating parliamentary privilege and obstructing informed debate in the House”, The Telegraph reported.
The deportations are part of a wider crackdown by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has used military aircraft to repatriate undocumented migrants. In all, the United States deported 332 Indians on three flights in February.
