Chinese visa denial to anArunachal Pradesh youth delegate has created a frictionbetween the Ministry of External Affairs and the SportsMinistry.
Maintaining that MEA was not kept in loop, officialsources said, "Sports Ministry should have consulted the MEAbefore going ahead with such a tour to avoid any suchincident."
The Sports Ministry, on the other hand, insisted that thevisa denial to the delegate came at such a late stage thatnothing could have been done.
"We were informed about this visa denial at a very latestage. We were told just moments before the flight was to takeoff. It was not possible to do anything at that stage," aSports Ministry source said.
Chinese authorities denied the visa to the ArunachalPradesh delegate earlier this week but the 100-strong Indiandelegation still went ahead with the tour.
The delegation is in Beijing on the invitation of the AllChina Youth Federation as part of the program under the schemeof "the Year of China-India Friendship and Cooperation",jointly announced by Chinese President Hu Jintao and IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh.
This is not the first instance of China refusing visa toresidents of Arunachal, which Beijing calls its own territory.
In 2007, China refused a visa to an IAS officer of theArunachal cadre. In 2010, pistol shooter Pemba Tamang wasissued a stapled visa by the Chinese which prevented him fromparticipating in the World Championship.
In 2011, China issued stapled visas to two womenweightlifters and members of a karate team from the state.