Prominent Indian scientist denied US visa to attend conference in Ohio

Head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Dr MO Garg is outraged that his visa to the US was denied, keeping him from attending a conference held in Columbus, Ohio on June 15.

Dr Garg is in charge of the civilian research organisation which has 38 labs across the country. He submitted his passport to the US Embassy in Delhi almost 20 days ago in order to attend the conference but has yet to receive his passport back, NDTV reported. The scientist has travelled to the US several times since 1983. Six of his 30 patents are registered in the US.

This is not the first time one of the countries eminent scientist has been denied a US visa. In 2006, the US was forced to apologise after denying a visa to Dr Goverdhan Mehta, the then Director of the Indian Institute of Science from Bengaluru.  When they interviewed Mehta for his visa, US embassy officials questioned the validity of his research.