PM’s Media Team Subjected to US Profiling
A potential crisis in Indo-US bilateral ties was averted at the last moment when the US changed its decision to grant visas to all Muslim journalists who were part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s official media delegation to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.
The visas, denied due to “additional administrative processing”, could be granted only one day before the Prime Minister’s departure following a demarche – or diplomatic request – from the highest levels of government.
However, no Indian officials involved in the process had spoken anything on record about the incident, which, they admitted on anonymity, were a clear case of religious “profiling” by the US embassy in Delhi.
As usual, the passports of the accompanying official media delegation were sent a few days in advance to the US embassy for the necessary visas to be stamped. But when the passports were returned, three journalists – all of them Muslim – were handed yellow visa denial slips stating that they had been found “ineligible to receive a visa under Section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
