Give blacklisted NRI Sikhs a second chance, say leaders

In an earlier letter dated July 25, the Minorities Commission pleaded: “A large number of Sikh families in Punjab, especially the old people, all eager to meet their children and relatives, continue to knock at the door of the Indian Embassies in USA, Canada and England for grant of visas, without any avail…”

However, it’s not clear exactly how many NRIs remain on the list, drawn up and maintained by intelligence agencies. All that MHA officials would say is that the list was “fairly long”, and was periodically reviewed by officials from the MHA, Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

Tarlochan Singh, who was Press Secretary to President Zail Singh in 1984, recalls reports of a list of “thousands” of NRIs reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan. “Even now, I am sure the list would run into hundreds. Every now and then, some NRI complains to me about being denied a visa. Why doesn’t the Government allow these NRIs to come to Punjab and see the normalcy?”

The Minority Commission also cited several cases where NRIs managed to get visas, but were stopped at the airport by Customs authorities armed with copies of the blacklist. Singh has demanded that a committee of eminent citizens and IB and R&AW officials be appointed to review the list, and that NRIs against whom some serious offences were listed be given temporary visas and be put under surveillance while in India.

Dhindsa told The Indian Express that he too had met with Advani, and was proposing to follow it up with another meeting. Dhindsa claimed that the MHA had told him that the blacklist had recently been pruned from some 1,300 names to around 800 names. “But why should so many people be declared offenders 16 years after Operation Bluestar? Whenever I travel abroad I meet Sikhs who want to come to India either to make an investment, to meet their families or just to see a resurgent Punjab. The denial of visas to hundreds of NRIs is a very unfortunate occurrence.”

Other MPs have begun to latch themselves to the cause. Raj Babbar recently passed on the applications of five NRIs to the Minorities Commission, and said he would stand as a guarantor for them. Almost all these NRIs were former members of the International Sikh Youth Federation, who have pledged that they have broken ties with the organisation and now want to make a peaceful visit to India.

Another MP who’s been pledging his support is Kuldip Nayar. He says when he was High Commissioner in London in 1990 he too had pressed for a review and ensured that a MHA team came down to India House to sort out the issue. “If I remember right, the list had then been brought down from some 300 names to 15 names for England alone, but subsequently, several Sikhs complained of being put back on the blacklist. I endorse the commission’s demand to have a transparent review of the list.”