New Delhi toying with the idea of inviting people from the regions for Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
After revisiting its position on Balochistan, will India review its visa policy towards Pakistani passport- holders living in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit-Baltistan? Could it decide to issue 'stapled' visas to people from those two regions?
These questions have gained ground after a section of the Indian media reported that the country is toying with the idea of inviting delegates from PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan to the 14th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Non-Resident Indian Day), to be held in Bengaluru in January 2017.
While there is no official word from the ministry of external affairs (MEA), sources say that the invitees could include exiles living outside Pakistan. For now, all that foreign minister Sushma Swaraj ventures to say is "wait for a decision".
She made this remark on Friday in New Delhi at a news conference, in which she spoke about the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. India considers PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan as an integral part of Jammu and Kashmir, and, by extension, the people there as its subjects. But some have questioned India's wisdom of wanting to invite people from there to a diaspora meet on a proper Indian visa.
'Stapled' visas were issued by China not so long ago to some Indian nationals from Jammu and Kashmir because China disputed the status of the state as a part of India.
China discontinued this practice after India raised objections. Incidentally, foreign secretary S Jaishankar was involved in negotiations to resolve the issue in his then role as India's ambassador in Beijing.
If India decides to revisit its visa policy towards the people in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan, it will mark yet another change in its Pakistan policy. Recently, India went public with its position on Balochistan, a restive province in the south-west of Pakistan, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking about human rights violations there and expressing solidarity with the Baloch people in his August 15 Independence Day speech.
On Friday, MEA spokesperson iterated India's position that Pakistan should vacate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan says it will continue to extend diplomatic and political support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their "just struggle for right of self-determination" and for a solution of the decades-old issue as per United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The war of words between the two nuclear-armed neighbours threatens to jeopardise the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit to be held in Pakistan on November 9 and 10. Saarc comprises eight countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
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