The latest controversial case to surface involves a retired Indian colonel living in New Delhi who applied two weeks ago for a tourist visa to visit his daughter and son-in-law in Toronto.
The colonel, who retired 10 years ago and who does not want his name publicized because it may jeopardize his case, was asked for his son-in-law’s tax return. After providing it, he was directed on Monday morning — after Kenney’s apology — to document his military career, listing the places he had been posted and the officers he’d served under.
He said he had never been asked for that information before prior visits to Canada.
“I have an unblemished record and have never been investigated like this before,” the colonel said. “Imagine if a Canadian soldier wanting to visit India was treated the same way, with questions suddenly being asked about his entire service record. How would Canada react?”
The colonel said he hoped his situation was due to a “communication gap” and would be resolved in a matter of days.
“This is exactly the mind of thing that Kenney promised would stop,” said Peter Sutherland, Canada’s former High Commissioner to India. “It totally flies in the face of what he said.”
At a time when Canada has said it wants to strengthen its trade ties to India, its relationship with the budding economic juggernaut has been battered the past few weeks after it was revealed some Canadian diplomats have criticized India’s army, police and intelligence units.
“These are very important people in India, heroes,” Sutherland said, “and they were prevented from travelling and denigrated by a foreign country. It wasn’t good.”
The accusations were leveled in visa denial letters and the controversy sparked a backlash throughout India, with some political leaders suggesting if the matter wasn’t settled, Canadians might be stopped from using New Delhi as a transit point for trips into Afghanistan.
In at least one case that became front-page news in newspapers and debated on many cable TV channels, a Canadian immigration agent wrote that India’s Border Security Force “has engaged in systemic attacks on civilians and has been responsible for systematically torturing suspected criminals.” Police in the western Indian state Punjab were similarly accused of crimes against humanity.
Kenney released a statement Friday promising to review immigration rules and apologizing for the language used in some correspondence with visa applicants. He wrote the incident served as an example of how “deliberately broad legislation may create instances when the net is cast too widely by officials, creating irritants with our trusted and valued international allies.”
The Indian government accepted the apology and said it considered the matter closed.
No comments:
Post a Comment