NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Friday that visa decisions are a sovereign matter, as a row escalated over allegations that more than 100 foreign speakers invited to the Bharat Summit in Hyderabad were denied entry into India or had their visas cancelled.
"Visa matters are sovereign functions of any country or any government," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at the bi-weekly briefing, when asked about a post by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Tharoor alleged that 115 of the 315 speakers cleared by the MEA for the 13-14 November summit had been refused entry or had their visas cancelled, apparently on the instructions of the home ministry.
Tharoor said he learnt of the cancellations on reaching Hyderabad. He questioned the legal basis for the action, noting that the summit would end Saturday and the affected speakers could no longer attend. He called it a shame that a proud democracy had become so insecure.
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy accused the Centre of preventing people who question Prime Minister Narendra Modi from reaching India. "I don't understand why the BJP is worried about diverse oppositional voices. Narendra Modi thinks he is a dictator who can stifle all voices," Reddy told a press conference.
The row has also put the spotlight on Norwegian journalist Helle Lyng Svendsen of the Oslo-based newspaper Dagsavisen. She said the Indian embassy in Oslo told her on 11 November, about 10 minutes before she was to leave for the airport, that she could not travel, despite holding a visa and political clearance. She attributed the decision to "orders from above" in the home ministry. Her claim has not been independently verified.
Svendsen had been invited to speak on the future of media and press freedom. She had questioned Modi during his visit to Oslo in May over his refusal to take questions from journalists.
The BJP has rejected the Congress's framing of the event. Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy described the summit as an attempt to bring together forces critical of India. Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao questioned the expenditure and accused the state government of sponsoring "anti-India forces".
The home ministry, which Congress leaders have accused of ordering the cancellations, has not issued a public response at the time of filing of the report.
The two-day summit, hosted by the Congress-led Telangana government at HITEX, has drawn around 1,000 delegates from India and more than 70 countries. Its discussions cover global geopolitics, democracy, climate change, artificial intelligence and electoral integrity.
