Canada 'deeply regrets' visa row with India

[prithvi.k]

yesterday--
Visa row: India to retaliate if Canada does not respond


NEW DELHI: With public outrage mounting over the denial of visas to several serving and retired officials of Indian security agencies, India on Thursday warned Canada that it will retaliate suitably if Ottawa does not respond within "a few days".

"We have written to the external affairs ministry about it. If the Canadians don't respond, we will retaliate," Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told IANS.

Asked if Canadians would be denied visas to India as a retaliatory measure, Pillai said: "Let's see. It all depends on how they respond."

Pillai said India will wait for a few days before deciding the course of action. "We will wait to hear from them. Let's give them a few days' time," said Pillai.

He, however, refused to spell out possible retaliatory steps India may take against Canada over what is widely seen here as the denial of visa on extraneous grounds.

Pillai added that the external affairs ministry had summoned the Canadian high commissioner last week and sought an explanation.

One way to retaliate would be to deny visas to Canadian officials who go to Afghanistan via India, said highly-placed sources.

The home ministry wants the Canadian high commission to apologise, take back the comments and take action against the officers responsible for rejecting visas, the sources said.

Lt. Gen. (retd) A.S. Bahia, a decorated Indian Army officer who is now a member of the Armed Forces Tribunal in Chandigarh, was denied visa in May on grounds that he had served in a "sensitive location" of Jammu and Kashmir.

In yet another case, two brigadiers were denied visas in 2008 and another in 2009.

S.S. Sidhu, a retired IB officer, was denied visa on March 26, with the Canadian high commission contending that he belonged to the "inadmissible" category of persons.

In the rejection letter, the Canadian high commission said Sidhu could not be given visa as he had served in an organisation like IB and, therefore, he could "engage in an act of espionage or subversion", or "violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada".

Sidhu, who said he wanted to go to Canada just to see the new house of his daughter, has termed the rejection as a "disgusting reply from a friendly country like Canada and an insult to India".

Sidhu was to visit Canada ahead of the trip of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next month for the G-20 summit.

However, in Sidhu's case, the Canadian high commission relented after the home ministry wrote a letter to the external affairs ministry protesting the move, sources said.

The home ministry made it clear that if the IB officer was not given visa, Canadian citizens wanting to go to the war-ravaged Afghanistan from India may face similar problems.

Last week, the Canadian high commission here refused a visa to Fateh Singh Pandher, a retired BSF constable, on grounds that he was associated with a "notoriously violent force".

"The matter was taken up immediately with the Canadian high commission," Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said here on Tuesday.

The denial of visa and the reason given for it sparked an outrage in India, prompting the Canadian authorities to go on a damage control exercise and express "great respect for India's armed forces and related institutions".

The Canadian high commission has, however, yet to comment on the incident. Despite repeated attempts to contact him, the spokesperson of the Canadian high commission was not available for comment.

 

[prithvi.k]

Canada 'deeply regrets' visa row with India


28'may: Canada has said it "deeply regrets" the aspersions cast on the Indian security establishment following the refusal of visa to several Indians by its mission in New Delhi.

"The government of Canada deeply regrets the recent incident in which letters drafted by public service officials during routine visa refusals to Indian nationals cast false aspersions on the legitimacy of work carried out by Indian defence and security institutions," citizenship and immigration minister Jason Kenney said late on Thursday.

Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's planned trip to Canada, Kenney tried to soothe ruffled feathers by saying that it had "the highest regard for India, its government institutions and processes".

"Canada has the highest regard for India, its government institutions and processes. Our friendship as democratic nations who operate under the rule of law grows ever stronger and we share a common bond of ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity.

"At a time when global security continues to be a cause for concern, Canada values the increasing ties and cooperation with India in the fields of defence, security and counter-terrorism.

"Each year, Canada welcomes about 131,000 Indian residents on both a temporary and permanent basis, including many individuals from the various Indian security forces," Kenney said.

Indo-Canadian relations hit a storm following revelations that the Canadian mission in New Delhi had in recent years denied visas to an unspecified number of serving and retired Indians because of their association with the armed forces and spy agencies.

The refusal sparked public outrage in India, with some demanding a public apology from Canada. The row erupted less than a month before Manmohan Singh goes to Canada to attend the G20 summit.

A retired BSF officer, Fateh Singh Pandher, who was the first to expose the scandal, was told that he belonged to a "notoriously violent" force. Since then, several retired and even serving members of India's defence forces and intelligence agencies have said they were denied visas.

Even an Intelligence Bureau officer set to travel with Manmohan Singh was given the same treatment before New Delhi protested and Canada climbed down.

Kenney said the language of the letters issued along with visa refusal or the "inaccurate impression" they gave "in no way reflects the policy or position of the government of Canada.

"While admissibility to Canada is determined by a number of criteria, candidate assessments should in no way question Indian institutions which operate under the rule of law and within a democratic framework".

He added that "decisions on visa applications are made on a case-by-case basis by non-partisan public servants following an independent process based on Canada's immigration law as it currently stands".

"However, this unfortunate incident has demonstrated that the deliberately broad legislation may create instances when the net is cast too widely by officials, creating irritants with our trusted and valued international allies. For this reason the admissibility policy within the legislation is under active review at this time."