Canada must apologize for visa denials: India

NEW DELHI: \'Mind your language\': That is the blunt message India has conveyed to Canada. The government has told Canadian high commissioner Joseph Caron that the aspersions cast by his mission on Indian security forces and agencies were not acceptable.



With more instances of Canadian diplomats accusing Indian security forces - BSF, Intelligence Bureau and others - of torture and human rights violations coming to light, India\'s resentment was publicly articulated by foreign minister S M Krishna. Most of the retired and serving officials denied visa are or were associated with agencies like the Army, BSF and IB. While rejecting their visa applications, the Canadian high commission said these officials could \"engage in an act of espionage or subversion\" or \"violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada\".



Krishna told reporters in Bangalore that Canada\'s remarks against security forces were \"unacceptable\".



\"We have conveyed to the Canadian government that certain remarks in some letters, issued by their high commission in response to visa requests from serving or retired officers of our security forces and agencies, were unacceptable,\" Krishna said.



\"India is a democracy. All institutions function under our Constitution. We are proud of our security forces and agencies and the services rendered by them to the nation. We expect the Canadian authorities to address the situation appropriately,\" said Krishna.



In response to a query from the media in Bangalore, Krishna said the Canadian high commissioner was summoned twice by the foreign office to be told about India\'s feelings.



The home ministry went a step ahead and set a deadline of one week for the Canadians to come up with an \"appropriate response\" in order to avoid a tit-for-tat response from India.



Official sources said Caron was told unequivocally that remarks against India\'s security forces were not acceptable.



They, however, emphasized that India\'s grouse is not against the denial of visas to individuals, and that it recognizes that grant of visas is the prerogative of the host country. They said India was peeved with the completely unwarranted remarks against the security forces.



But while the foreign ministry\'s response was nuanced and factored in friendly ties with Canada, home ministry was seething with resentment against the haughtiness of Canadian diplomats. It was Union home secretary G K Pillai, alerted by allegations levelled by Canadian high commission staffers, who wrote to foreign secretary Nirupama Rao about a fortnight ago, asking MEA to act tough with the Canadians. \"We will give them some time to respond. However, if they don\'t respond in an appropriate manner, we will retaliate,\" said a home ministry official.



While he did not elaborate, sources said one possible retaliation could be to prevent Canadian officials from entering Afghanistan via India.



\"We want the Canadian high commission to apologize, take back the comments made in the rejection letters and also initiate action against the officers responsible for rejecting visas,\" said a high-ranking official.

The government seemed to have taken the matter very seriously because of the fact that a serving IB official, who is also the security liaison officer for PM Manmohan Singh, too was denied a Canadian visa recently. He was allowed to travel only after the foreign ministry intervened. The official will travel to Toronto with the PM for the G-20 summit next month.



On Tuesday, while stating that the matter had been taken up strongly with Canada, Rao highlighted the fact that the Canadian foreign office had said that Canada had the highest respect for India\'s democratic institutions and armed forces. The MEA was hoping that the matter would end there, but with more cases now being reported the issue is threatening to get out of control.



While the Canadian foreign ministry was quick to respond in the case of ex-BSF constable Fateh Singh Pandher, who was the first to take up the matter with the government, there has been complete silence from their side since the others cases were reported.



The MEA was earlier walking the tightrope considering India\'s overall friendly ties with Canada, but with the home ministry insisting on an apology from the Canadian authorities, it has been forced to convey that India will not tolerate such behaviour.



Meanwhile, the issue seemed to have also sparked off a political storm with the BJP accusing the government of following a weak foreign policy. Even the Congress denied the Canadian denial of visas as \"unfortunate\".



BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, \"We don\'t need any certificate from Canada for our armed forces but such incidents show that we are following a very weak foreign policy... Has India\'s foreign policy become so weak that a country like Canada is denying visa to top officials?\"



Earlier in the day, JD(U) chief and NDA convener Sharad Yadav said, \"This kind of attitude by a country like Canada shows that India has become subservient to such countries. If the nation is strong then nobody can behave in such a manner with us. There is a need to strengthen India in front of the world.\"
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