Visa norms eased

The government of India has decided to ease some of its new more stringent visa norms, which have received some criticism from other countries as well as from minister of state for external affairs, Shashi Tharoor. While Tharoor had to apologise for his message on the social networking site Twitter, which questioned the wisdom of tightening visa norms because of problems for tourists and the fact that the killers of 26/11 had no visas, it appears that all the questions have led to a change in the norms.

Problems had been foreseen for foreign employees, especially those working in various government departments, as the changed rules stated that people coming to India on business visas could not work without an employment visas. The new rules will now allow for a “government to government” category which will allow more flexibility. Other countries have also asked for flexibility, even for non-goverment workers.

The government has also allowed visas on arrival for people from some countries — Pakistan has been removed from the list, hardly surprising since this visa crackdown is the immediate fallout of the David Headley-Daood Gilani case and the alarm over the ease with which the alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba operative visited India, set up businesses and travelled around.

The issue of course is a tricky one. Tharoor, quite legitimately, had only asked whether stricter rules would benefit our tourism industry, which needs all the help it can get. He also questioned whether visas could keep committed terrorists out. At the same time, other countries have questioned the need to make things tougher for business visitors, at a time when the world wants to visit India.

But nor can it be denied that security is an issue and together with all the other measures being taken, visas are just one more. It cannot hurt, surely, to have tighter controls on visitors to India if that helps in some small way to keep us — and the world — safer. As usual, hindsight is spot on when it points out that it might have made better sense to have had a larger debate on this issue before issuing the guidelines.

The rules were changed by the Union home ministry, but the effects of those changes affect external affairs, tourism, commerce, trade and in fact, almost every aspect of life today. This requires nuanced thinking and well-calibrated adjustments for different kinds of visitors. It also requires a speedy process so that the genuine are not overly inconvenienced. Pragmatism and anticipation need to go hand in hand here.