The Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi refused to meet a visiting US Congressional delegation comprising Republican and Democrat members.

Earlier on Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon cancelled their meetings separately with the visiting US delegation

India also stopped all clearances for import by the US embassy including liquor even as it looked set to remove all traffic barricades near the embassy on Nyaya Marg in Delhi. The picket, however, would stay.

The visiting US delegation is led by Congressmen George Holding (Republican-North Carolina), and comprises Pete Olson (Republican-Texas), David Schweikert (Republican-Arizona), Robert Woodall (Republican-Arizona) and Madeleine Bordallo (Democrat-Guam).

BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi too declined to meet the US team. He tweeted: 'Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA.'

India has sought visa and other details of all teachers at US schools and pay and bank accounts of Indians in these schools.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh summoned the US Ambassador Nancy Powell on December 13 and was issued a demarche as a strong protest against the treatment of the Indian diplomat.

The 39 year aged 1999-batch IFS officer Devyani Khobragade was taken into custody last week on a street in New York while she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a $250,000 (Rs 1.5 crore) bond after pleading not guilty in court.

The visiting US delegation is led by Congressmen George Holding (Republican-North Carolina), and comprises Pete Olson (Republican-Texas), David Schweikert (Republican-Arizona), Robert Woodall (Republican-Arizona) and Madeleine Bordallo (Democrat-Guam).