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Friday, February 19, 2010

Illiberal India

Did you know that when someone wants to visit India to attend a conference, the person has to:

obtain Conference Visa from the Indian Mission concerned on production of either the invitation letter from the organiser, event clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs, administrative approval of the nodal ministry, political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs or clearance from the State Government/UT concerned.

Or am I mis-reading this, and all that's required is an invitation letter from the organiser?

5 comments:

  1. Seems like 'either-or' i.e. only one of those required for nations other than those specified.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No you are not misreading. This is the (right) official procedure . Unless of course somebody bends this depending on the circuistances i.e. called (Administrative Flex !)discretion of the 'executive' (unquestionablity !).

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think Yunhi may be right. Its enough if only one of those documents are produced.

    But even if not, can you really blame them for reacting adversely, given the current state of affairs?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I go to conferences all the time in lots of countries which have encountered a lot of terrorism. All one needs is a letter of invitation.

    It is an unreasonable expansion of government scope if government is to review every conference organised by the citizens of the country.

    It is only in a police state that a policeman's job is easy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. "As per the revised procedure, the security clearance for grant of Conference Visa is required from the MHA in respect of participants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, foreigners of Pakistan origin and stateless persons. Participants from other countries can obtain Conference Visa from the Indian Mission concerned on production of either the invitation letter from the organiser, event clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs, administrative approval of the nodal ministry, political clearance from the Ministry of External Affairs or clearance from the State Government/UT concerned."

    It is very clear that the multiple clearance is only for persons from specified countries. For others its is any one of the documents listed.
    Read carefully the word "either" followed later by the word "or"!!!

    ReplyDelete

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