China has begun issuing visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, over which it lays claim, but they are stapled to passports as in the case of people from Jammu and Kashmir.
In a departure from past practice, China has begun issuing visas to residents of Arunachal Pradesh, over which it lays claim, but they are stapled to passports as in the case of people from Jammu and Kashmir.
China's new tactics came to light when two sportsmen from Arunachal Pradesh were prevented by immigration officials from boarding a flight today from New Delhi to Beijing since they had stapled visas issued by the Chinese embassy on their passports.
Indian Weightlifting Federation's joint secretary Abraham K Techi along with a weightlifter of the state were taken aback when immigration officials at New Delhi's IGI Airport stopped them and turned the two men away because of the stapled visas issued by the Chinese Embassy.
Techi and the weightlifter, who were to visit the country at the invitation of Chinese Weightlifting Association president Menguang for the January 15-17 China Weightlifting Grand Prix at Fujian province, thereafter got in touch with the Chinese Embassy.
Reacting to the Chinese action, the ministry of external affairs said India considers Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India and has conveyed to the Chinese side that a uniform process of issue of visas to Indian citizens be followed regardless of applicant's ethnicity or place of domicile.
Maintaining that both the athletes are reportedly domiciles of Arunachal Pradesh, the ministry recalled that a travel advisory had been issued in February, 2009 cautioning Indian citizens that Chinese visas stapled to passports were not valid for travel outside the country.
Needling India, China started issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir from later part of 2008 in an attempt to project it as a disputed area. In the case of residents of Arunachal Pradesh, visas were never issued till now as China claims the whole of the north-eastern state as its own.
The contentious issue of stapled visas for residents of Jammu and Kashmir had figured during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to New Delhi last month. Wen had said that China takes India's concerns on the issue seriously.
Techi told Press Trust of India the Chinese officials at the embassy informed him that the 'right' visas have been issued to them.
"This is an insult and unnecessary harassment to Arunachalees," Techi said.
Reacting to the incident, Congress Lok Sabha member Takam Sanjoy said though Sino-India relations have been improving with New Delhi and Beijing taking positive steps, the border issue, China's repeated claims over Arunachal Pradesh territory and stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir were contentious issues which were hindrances.
Sanjoy said though India, particularly Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took very bold steps during Wen's visit to further strengthen bilateral ties, the Chinese government had proved its policy to consolidate its claim on Arunachal territory.
China started the practice of issuing stapled visas to people from Jammu and Kashmir two years back. India sees this as an act amounting to questioning the state's integration with rest of the country.
In 2007, China had denied visa to senior IAS officer Ganesh Koyu who hailed from Arunachal Pradesh and was a member of 107 strong IAS officers' team on a management programme to China.
A study visit to Beijing and Shanghai, part of a programme to learn more about Chinese economic growth and policies, was cancelled at the intervention of the Prime Minister because of Beijing's refusal to grant visa to Koyu.
Earlier, Vishal Nabam, now advisor to chief minister Dorjee Khandu, had visited China on a month-long tourist visa in 2006.
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