India gives Canada one week to solve visa row
PTI
BANGALORE/NEW DELHI, MAY 27
Taking a tough line, India today termed as “unacceptable” the denunciation of its security forces and intelligence establishment by Canada and gave it a one-week deadline to “address the situation appropriately”.
While Canada remained silent amid an outrage here, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said the Canadian High Commissioner had been “called” twice by his ministry to register protest over the issue.
“We have conveyed to the Canadian government that the letter issued by the Canadian High Commission to serving or retired officials of our security forces and agencies who had applied for Canadian visa are entirely unacceptable,” he told reporters in Bangalore.
“We expect the Canadian authorities to address the situation appropriately,” the minister said.
Asked what next step India contemplated, he said, “Let us wait for the Canadian authorities to address it”.
Noting that India had made its “position crystal clear to Canadian authorities”, Krishna appealed to the media “not try to blow it (the issue) out of proportion.”
Underlining that institutions in India function under the Constitution, he said, “we are proud of our security forces and agencies and the services they render to the nation”.
The Canadian High Commission, over the last few years, has denied visas to a number of senior serving and retired officials of the armed forces and intelligence establishment, claiming that their organisations or they themselves have served in sensitive areas like Jammu and Kashmir and engaged in violence and human rights violations.
The Home Ministry is pushing the External Affairs Ministry to act tough with Canada over the issue even as political parties reacted with outrage.
Home Secretary G K Pillai has written a strongly-worded letter to Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, insisting that the MEA should act tough and seek apology from the High Commission and withdrawal of the officials who made the adverse comments against the security forces, sources said.
The Home Ministry wants the apology and the other action from the High Commission within a week, warning that there will otherwise be retaliation and the Canadian officials going to Afghanistan via India would be denied permission.
“We have written to the MEA, informing them about the whole development,” Pillai told PTI.
in Delhi.
Asked whether India would take retaliatory action, he said, “Let us see. It all depends on how they respond… We will wait to hear from them. Let’s give them a few days’ time.”
In Beijing, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the matter was being taken seriously and the Canadian High Commissioner was summoned by Vivek Katju, Secretary (West) in the MEA, on Monday to lodge protest.
Meanwhile, political parties expressed outrage over the Canadian behaviour and BJP and JD(U) accused the government of following “a very weak” foreign policy.
“Has India’s foreign policy become so weak that a country like Canada is denying visas to top offficials?.. We don’t need any certificate from Canada on our armed forces but such incidents show that we are following a very weak foreign policy,” party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.
He said that while India was fighting terrorism for the past several decades, the government was unable to present its case properly before the world.
NDA convenor and JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav said, “this kind of attitude by a country like Canada only goes on to show that India has become subservient to such countries.”
He said, “if the nation is strong then nobody can behave in such manner with us. There is a need to strengthen India in front of the world.”
Congress also disapproved of the Canadian action.
