thecatapult.in

NEW DELHI: In a strange move, at a time when the government is promoting “Come to India — Walk with the Buddha” to attract foreign tourists to Buddhist circuit in the country, five foreigners have been given Quit India notice to leave the country within seven days “for participating in a religious activity”.

James Petersen, Lex Pelger and David Huang from US, Maryla Cross from UK and Paul Christians Buntz from Norway were given the notices for “violating the visa rules” by Pithoragarh SP Puran Singh Rawat on Friday as they reached Banspatan in Uttarkhand’s border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.[source- Quit India notice to five foreign marchers]

As is obvious from the above passage these men were detained for participating in a peace march- a political activity. and maybe just maybe even that is a violation of the rules of the tourist visas issued to them. but the haughty idiots that man India’s foreign policy citadels simply cannot be bothered to even refer back to the very rulebook under which they claim to be operating.

The government insists that the five have violated visa rules. “On tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion. It’s only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march,” said Ashim Khurana, joint secretary (Foreigners) in the ministry of home affairs.

Well the concerned MEA joker in this case doesn’t even seem to have the talent or the learned ability to make his case properly.Some diplomat he is.

First and foremost these people were engaged in a political activity which may also be a violation if only he had bothered to check the rulebook.but the dead giveaway is against whom their political activity was aimed at- the MEA’s ideological motherland ofcourse.

The five were detained 70 km before the military zone — the Inner Line (near) Banspatan in Uttarkhand’s border district with the Tibetan marchers who have been walking towards Tibet since March 10.

While Petersen has been covering the march for a US magazine, Buntz works for a Norwegian TV channel and Huang, a California-based photographer, has been taking pictures of the march that has covered some 1,000 km already.

Does the profile of any of the above sound like that of a missionary? they sound more like journalists to this blogger.

If the MEA was really serious about tackling the menace of foreign missionaries violating visa permits and engaging in “religious activities” they would have more than their hands full. Such blatant violations seems to have become the norm rather than the exception and has been going on for a long, long time.

Yet, visa rules have never been strictly enforced in India and as in the case of several other foreign missionaries involved in religious activities in India, Cooper too was on a tourist visa. The latest visit was his 14th to Kerala and he has been spending about four months each year in India for the last 10 years. [source- the oh so "secular" CPM mouth piece Frontline]

HYDERABAD: Police on Thursday questioned 26 American tourists on a visit to the city after residents of a slum in Baghlingampally complained that the foreigners were trying to convert the locals.According to the Chikkadpally police, a group of 53 foreigners had come to India on tourist visas.

The tourists were accompanied by three pastors, Sudhakar, Soulu and Srinivas who acted as translators for them.The tourists are reported to belong to a group, Youth Wing Mission and went to the slum in vehicles provided by Bethel Gospel church.

The police let off the tourists, mostly comprising women, after questioning them. While no case was booked, police officials said that it would be done after another round of questioning of the slum dwellers and the tourists.[source- the classical liberal tabloid- ToI]

Not even a case booked even in the face of a specific complaint! let alone a deportation order and the Policeman in this case is even on record in the above report saying that even engaging in such missionary activities is not against the existing law(which ofcourse it is. he is just another ignorant bureaucrat).Needless to say no one from the MEA turned up to do any investigation or take action in either of the above cases of blatant violation of visa rules.

so what really is the end goal of the MEA which seems to have suddenly woken up to its responsibility here?

The truth of the matter is that the MEA has become just another pinko junkie institution like the JNU and the assorted human rights NGOs and cannot tolerate anyone who speaks out against their beloved People’s Republic of China. Added to that is the fact that its current minister owes his very political existence to humouring the CPI(M) to retain his LS seat in West Bengal. In this case therefore it can be clearly seen that it is merely abusing a law to meet its own goal of not making things too hot for its ideological masters in Beijing.

The pattern is obvious from the start, from the issuing of gag orders against the Dalai lama and instructing him to engage only in religious activity (notice the incongruity) and appointing minders to watch him 24/7, and asking the Tibetans not to engage in protests against a “friendly country”, to its ambassador in Beijing turning up on a late night call at the doorstep of the Chinese foreign ministry, to facilitating the establishment of China-friendly government in neighbouring Nepal, and now blatantly violating Indian law by aiming to suppress the right to freedom of speech it appears that the MEA has consciously decided to engage on a course to make India a subaltern state of China.

It is therefore imperative on the part of the people of India to reign in this rogue institution which though setup and fattened up on Indian tax payer money has consciously engaged on a path that is inimical to India’s national interests and against the aspirations of the Indian people who want their nation to be proudly Independent and hold its head high in the comity of nations.