From News Dispaches
STOCKHOLM: Alejandro Claps president of the Foreign Press Association and other foreign journalists in Stockholm representing news agencies and newspapers around the world have m a communication to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Foreign Minister P.V Narasimha Rao denounced as an affront to the freedom of the press denial of tourist vise to P. L. Lakhanpal author anc journalist. Journalists representing the Soviet News agency Tass and US Arab and African press joined in the protest against the initial denial of visa to Lakhanpal and the Government’s failure to take a decision on his representation against the denial made on November 7, 1988. said Claps. Visa Denial Crude & Inhuman The Denial of visa to Lakhanpal the journalists said became all the more inexplicable since he was ngranted visa twice in the past to visit India in 1985 and in 1987. “Freedom of movement and ideas across international borders forms essential part of human rights. Nothing can be more cruel and human than to deny visas to people with roots in any country to meet their relations and friends or simply to visit the land of their parents birth” the foreign journalists told the Indian Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister.
“We note with concern the assertion made by Lakhanpal that the denial of visa to him this time is ‘because of his critical reporting on Bofors especially the Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlson’s letter to him of September 12, 1988, denying discussions with Rajiv Gandhi on Bofors credits during his visit to Stockholm in 1986, they added.
The foreign journalists said the fact that no action had been taken on Lakhanpal’s representation despite his writing thrice to Rajiv Gandhi and four of his colleagues in the Home, Foreign, Information, and Law, ministries lent credence to his assertion. The denial of visa and your inaction on his representation for reversal of that decision becomes ail the more condemnable,” they added, urging the Prime Minister and Rao to issue immediately a visa to Lakhanpal in the interest of good relations between India and Sweden. Pakistani Lead Amir Ali Shah Ambassador of Pakistan to Sweden told newsmen that Pakistan “appears to have taken the lead in the World in abolishing requirement of visa for people of Pakistani origin.
The requirement of visa had been abolished for such people since August 1987. All those who had ever held a Pakistani passport had only to mention their passport number to get exemption from visa for visits to Pakistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 26, 1989
