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Thursday, 11 December 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering his address at the SAARC Summit
“Today, less than 5% of the region’s global trade takes place between us. Even at this modest level, less than 10% of the region’s internal trade takes place under SAARC Free Trade Area.
“Indian companies are investing billions abroad, but less than 1% flow into our region.
“It is still harder to travel within our region than to Bangkok or Singapore; and, more expensive to speak to each other…
We should use the strength of shared heritage and our diversity to encourage tourism within our region, and present South Asia to the world. We could begin with the Buddhist circuit, but we don’t have to stop there.”
I was tweeting Prime Minister Modi’s impressive SAARC Summit speech that included the above statements, when a cynic/sceptic asked whether these were just empty words. My tweet in response was: “Difference: @narendramodi is making specif unilateral commitments on behalf of India #SAARC2014. Collective stuff we can forget abt.”
A specific commitment made by the Prime Minister was “India will now give business visa for 3-5 years for SAARC. Let’s make it even easier for our businesses through a SAARC Business Traveller Card.”
The SAARC visa issued to business people, one of few useful thingsSAARC has done during its uneventful existence, is no longer valid for one year. One has to renew it every three months. So an Indian visa valid for three to five years sounds real good.
Meanwhile, back home in Delhi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh was rolling out a new e-visa scheme, saying “currently we have included 43 countries in the first phase. Barring those who are ‘high-risk’ countries, we will extend this facility to almost every country in the world phase-wise”.
What are these “high-risk countries”? Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia. Of the eight SAARC countries, three are deemed high-risk and denied the electronic conveniences the Prime Minister so loves.
A country has a sovereign right to decide who comes into its territory. So let’s not talk about the illogic of making eligible for electronic visas the country from which David Headley, the man who scoped out the 26/11 Mumbai attacks just six years ago, came. High-risk Sri Lanka just happened to be the fourth largest source of tourists coming into India in 2013. As a proportion of population, it sent the most tourists to India.
A Buddhist circuit for tourists will necessarily involve Nepal and Sri Lanka. But it will be possible for tourists to go from Sri Lanka to India and vice versa, using the electronic visa facilities both countries have in place. Only Sri Lankan citizens, mostly high-risk old ladies on Buddhist pilgrimage, will have to stand in line for visas.
The e visa scheme was announced well before the election. The designation of Sri Lanka as a high-risk country to be excluded from the electronic visa facility predated the Modi Government. Now that the Prime Minister has spoken, one hopes the policy will be amended, silencing the cynics and the sceptics.
