UPA`s foreign policy disastrous, mishandled Devyani issue: BJP

Guwahati: Criticising the UPA government for mishandling the Devyani Khobragade issue, the BJP on Friday said the UPA`s foreign policy is "disastrous".

"We do not appreciate the manner in which the US diplomat issue was handled. It is a gross mis-management of foreign policy," BJP`s deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here. The Government handled the entire issue very "inappropriately", he said. "The big question is how come the maid went to the US. Why did the US Embassy in India give her a visa It is a question if any human trafficking is also happening," Prasad alleged. Talking about the Centre`s policy, he said "The foreign policy of the UPA is disastrous, be it our relation with the Pakistan, China or the US." Senior Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade was today indicted in the US for visa fraud and making false statements by a grand jury, which held that the charges against her will remain even as she headed back to India after being accorded full diplomatic immunity. A 1999-batch IFS officer, Khobragade, was arrested on December 12 last year on charges of making false declarations in a visa application for her maid. She was released on a USD 250,000 bond. The diplomat was strip searched and held with criminals, triggering a row between the two sides with India retaliating by downgrading privileges of certain category of US diplomats.