India protests to US over TV host's Golden Temple joke

WASHINGTON: India's embassy in Washington has contacted US assistant secretary of state Robert Blake to protest a gag by late night TV host Jay Leno involving Sikhism's holiest shrine, a senior State Department official said Tuesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Indian government "contacted us" and Blake responded along the lines of an earlier State Department position, which affirmed US constitutional rights to free speech.