| Refusal of Indian visa Dr. A.T.M. Zafrullah Chowdhury-Trustee, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Mr. Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh High Commission of India November 12, 2009 House #2, Rd. # 142 Kartik 28, 1416 Gulshan 1, Dhaka. Dear Mr. High Commissioner, Subject: Refusal of Indian visa I had applied for an Indian visa to speak at the plenary of the 5th South Asian Conference on Trade and Development: Globalization and Public Health: Key Issues and Policy Options on 23rd & 24th November, 2009, and for a transit visa to go to Cuba via India. Therefore, I applied for a one year multiple entry visa for India on 22nd October 2009 with all supporting documents. On 5 November 2009, my passport was returned without a visa and no reason was given. I am writing this letter to bring the details of the matter to your attention to redress the harassment by Indian visa office. Since 1972, I have never been refused a visa to India. In the past, I either had a one year or a six month multiple entry visa to India. My last visa was a six months multiple entry visa. This visa expired on 2nd August 2009 (Visa No. AC 798830). On 3rd November 2009, I was asked to meet with your visa officer, Mr. Somnath Halder at noon. Mr. Halder took me to meet another officer who introduced himself simply as 'Kumar' and asked me whether I was present at a conference organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat in July this year at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel. There was a file in front of Mr. Kumar. When I said yes, Mr. Kumar looked at the file said "you are the only one in that meeting, who spoke against Indian interest." In reply, I repeated to him what I had said at that open discussion at Session IX: Transit in South Asia on 8th July 2009. I said in the said meeting that India having a $ 7 billion business in Bangladesh with Bangladesh having less than half a billion dollar export to India would naturally have to see in what way providing transit to India would benefit Bangladesh. Neither Nepal nor Bhutan are being given a similar transit facility by India to use Bangladesh's seaport. I had also said that what India was asking amounted to a corridor rather than transit. Bangladeshis living in an enclave of Dohogram Angorputa near the border have to live practically in curfew conditions as they are not being given 24 hours corridor facility through Tin Bigha. Moreover, the six eastern states of India adjacent to Bangladesh's eastern border are plagued by security problems requiring a large military presence. Therefore, we have to be careful about a corridor between the rest of India and its eastern states. Moreover as a small neighbour with a huge trade deficit, we expect that India as the bigger neighbour to show magnanimity by allowing direct trading facilities with the seven eastern states. The Tripura government had wanted to buy our pharmaceutical products but could not because they are not permitted to do so without central government approval. During the discussion on the Asian Highway I had suggested that the Asian Highway through the sub-continent should be such that Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar can all join. I further stated in the meeting that we remain grateful to India for their help in our independence war and cherish that relationship. India too has to be careful not to do anything that may appear otherwise. Furthermore, I tried to tell Mr. Kumar that I have travelled to India on over 100 occasions since 1972 and on one occasion, the then Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, came to Savar Gonoshasthaya Kendra after 10 pm to stamp my passport for a visa and requested that I take the flight the same night so that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, could meet me on the following day to discuss the proposed Indian Drug Policy. Mr.Kumar interrupted and said, "You are against India's transit through Bangladesh, but you want transit through India." I clarified that I was not seeking transit through India to go to another part of Bangladesh. On the contrary, I was applying for a visa to attend meetings in Cuba and Delhi. Surely an individual's attendance at professional meetings is a different matter altogether from India seeking a corridor through Bangladesh to transport goods from Central and Western India to North Eastern states of India. Mr. Kumar abruptly cut short our discussion. When I asked about the visa, he said that he will put the matter to higher authorities and asked me to take delivery of the passport on 6th November'09 which was a Friday! I requested for the passport to be returned sooner. My passport was returned on 5th Nov'09 evening. I was not issued a visa and no reason was given. I would like to highlight several disturbing points with regard to the denial of visa. First, such conduct is unexpected from the "world's greatest democracy," and the land of Gandhi and Nehru. Surely, India, which was a beacon of hope against British colonization, and a leader of the Non-Aligned Movement of the 1970s, cannot today stand against freedom of speech simply because it is deemed against some Indian bureaucrats' and politicians' desires. Second, such conduct is a harassment of Bangladeshis seeking visa for legitimate reasons. Third and finally, the denial of visa had both financial and professional impact on me. I had to reroute my ticket, and hence had to pay a hefty fee to the airline. I also lost the opportunity to exchange views with my colleagues at the CENTAD meeting in Delhi. I write in anticipation that the Indian High Commission will give me an explanatory response regarding the denial of visa. Sincerely yours, (Dr. A.T.M. Zafrullah Chowdhury) Trustee, Gonoshasthaya Kendra Public Charitable Trust Bangladesh Passport: E 0148896 Issued in Dhaka on 10th May 2009 Expire 9th May 2014 E Mail:lamia@uoregon.edu http://www.newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=293987 |
__._,_.___