NEW DELHI: Alexander Charles Carlile, Baron Carlile of Berriew and a member of the British House of Lords who was denied entry into India on Wednesday because he did not have the appropriate visa, on Thursday accused the Indian government of succumbing to pressure from Dhaka and described New Delhi’s attitude as “supine and slavish”.
Carlile, a lawyer who represents Bangladesh’s Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Begum Khaleda Zia—who has been sentenced to jail for corruption—was denied entry into Bangladesh by the Sheikh Hasina-led government, and was planning to deliver a talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club in New Delhi on Thursday.
However, he was stopped at Delhi airport on arrival on July 11, and left for London on a British Airways flight two hours later. According to a Ministry of External Affairs release late on Wednesday, this was because “his intended activity in India was incompatible with the purpose of his visit as mentioned in his visa application form.”
“Supinely, supinely, the Indian government did that and they ought to be ashamed of denying a British QC, a member of the House of Lords entry into India for legitimate reasons. That is why I am not with you today,” Carlile said in a video press conference on Thursday.