Lu Jinghua, who fled to the US after the Tiananmen square crackdown, was not allowed to board her flight on 27 April with authorities informing her that her e-visa had been denied.<\/p>\n
BY DEVIRUPA MITRA
\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bON 28\/04\/2016<\/p>\n
Even as the Indian government was still trying to explain the u-turn over cancellation of Indian visa to Uyghur activist Dolkun Isa, 54-year-old Lu Jinghua went to catch the afternoon flight on Air India to New Delhi.<\/p>\n
The conference being held on April 28 in Dharamshala is described as the first Indian edition of an annual gathering<\/a> of pro-democracy activists and representatives of minorities \u2013 but several of the invitees have become a major diplomatic embarrassment for the government, with India having cancelled the e-visa of at least four participants.<\/p>\n India had claimed that Isa\u2019s visa had been cancelled as he had applied for the wrong category of visa. There was also explanation that India had to take cognisance of Isa\u2019s red corner notice which was apparently not flagged during the visa application process.<\/p>\n Lu, who fled to the US after the Tiananmen square crackdown<\/a>, went to the check-in desk for the Air India flight 102 at JFK international airport scheduled for 1 pm on April 26. \u201cThe staff informed me, \u2018your visa was refused\u2019,\u201d Lu wrote in Chinese in a April 27 post on her Facebook page.<\/p>\n She demanded to know an explanation for her e-visa not being accepted, which she had got a week ago. \u201cThey took my (American) passport and made a long international long distance call to India. After 20 minutes, my passport was returned and said, \u201cSorry rejected\u201d.<\/p>\n Lu, who now works as a realtor took a taxi straight to the Indian consulate in New York. \u201cThe staff there told me that visa processing did not take place here and that I should go to the visa centre,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n She went to the visa processing centre, but a guard told her that the office was closed. \u201cI was dejected, aware that I had been rejected by the government of India outside the door, and it was a very depressing way back home,\u201d said Lu.<\/p>\n Posting a link to a news report of the visa cancellation of Dolkun Isa, she said that she was convinced that China was behind her travails too. \u201cI have no reason to doubt that the Chinese authorities were behind the move to impede by India trip,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Wire <\/em>from Los Angeles, Jinghua\u2019s friend and a Tiananamen activist herself, Rose Tang said that since Chinese Xi Jinping took over there had been a crackdown in many of the sensitive parts of China.<\/p>\n \u201cMany number of governments have fallen one after another kowtowing to China. I was hopeful when Modi took office he would lead India, the world\u2019s rising superpower and the world\u2019s largest democracy, would stand up against the Chinese Communist dictatorship and show Western government a good example of not bowing to China\u2019s bullying and economic bait. A couple of days ago I was writing a report about China\u2019s human rights condition to the human rights commission of the ruling party of a major Western country, urging that party to increase cooperation with India rather than kowtowing to China. Today I\u2019m utterly disappointed with Indian government,\u201d said Tang.<\/p>\n While she wasn\u2019t invited to the Dharamshala conference, Rose did travel to the seat of the Dalai Lama in 2014 and 2015 as a tourist. \u201cI even gave a speech at a Tibetan rally in New Delhi during Chinese president Xi Jinping\u2019s state visit to India in September 2014. I suspect things have changed since then and now I\u2019m worried about myself being barred entry to India in near future,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Tang, who has close contacts in the Tibetan freedom movement, felt that there was increased worry among the Tibetan community about their situation in India. \u201cThey fear for themselves, fearing Modi\u2019s India is becoming a Chinese province just like Nepal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Earlier on April 26, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed that China had protested the visa given to Dolkun Isa.<\/p>\n \u201cUpon learning that the Indian government would grant a visa for Dolkun, the Chinese side has immediately expressed its concerns with the Indian side through the diplomatic channel,\u201d said the spokeswoman Hua Chunying.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I would like to stress is that Dolkun is a terrorist on the red notice of the Interpol and the Chinese police. Bringing him to justice is the due obligation of relevant countries. Sino-Indian relationship enjoys a sound momentum of development. The two sides should respect each other\u2019s concerns and properly handle relevant issues,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n The Indian ministry of external affairs on Thursday for the first time gave a public statement on Dolkun Isa\u2019s visa cancelation.<\/p>\n \u201cLook our visa policy is very clear. If a bona fide applicant obtains visa based on furnishing correct information and following due process, there would be no cause for any revocation. Let me clarify the situation since there seems to be several misconceptions on this matter,\u201d said MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup.<\/p>\n He noted that the Isa, chairman of Executive Committee of World Uyghur Congress, applied for tourist visa under electronic travel authorisation process.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was accordingly granted a visa. After obtaining the visa, Mr. Isa stated publicly that he was coming to attend a conference in India, a fact that was suppressed in the visa form and that the tourist visa does not permit,\u201d said Swarup.<\/p>\n Further, he argued that that Indian authorities came to learn later that Isa was the subject of a Red Corner Notice.<\/p>\n \u201cI would caution against meanings being read, either on visa being given to Mr. Isa or its subsequent cancellation. We are a democratic society, conscious of our responsibilities. Those would remain the guiding factors in such matter,\u201d said Swarup, alluding to the barrage of criticism over the cancellation of Isa\u2019s visa<\/a>.<\/p>\n While Isa\u2019s case was the most high profile due to his Interpol notice, China obviously brought down its weight on India to cancel visas of other activists.<\/p>\n On April 24, the \u201cReal Hong Kong News<\/a>\u201d, which posts English language translations of articles in Hong Kong\u2019s Cantonese media, published an article that the Indian visa of Ray Wong, a student leader, had been rejected. The application status was given as \u201crejected\u201d, but it also added that he \u201cmay be eligible for a regular visa\u201d \u2013 as per the screenshot of the rejection email<\/a> posted on the website.<\/p>\n As per the article, Ray Wong had applied for a e-visa as his passport was still held in court after he was charged with rioting during the so-called \u201cFishball Revolution<\/a>\u201d in early February.<\/p>\n Ray Wong is the conveneor of Hong Kong Indigenous, which is one of the more extreme organisations formed in the aftermath of the failed \u201cUmbrella Revolution\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Jinghua also had a recent Hong Kong connection, as she had attended a reception in New York in honour of Joshua Wong, the 19-year-old student leader who was one of the main drivers of the 2014 protests.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the article says that Edward Leung, spokesperson of Hong Kong Indigenous, still has a visa and was preparing to visit China.<\/p>\n Sources added tha Jinghua\u2019s documents were \u201cillegible and there was inconsistency with the purpose of her visit\u201d. With Ray Wong, there was \u201cdata inconsistency in his documents\u201d.<\/p>\n Mehmet Omer Kanat, director of Washington-based International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation, was another activist who was denied visa by the Indian government. He was part of a delegation of three Uyghur representatives, with now only one who has been allowed entry into India.<\/p>\n Earlier, India had rejected the visa application for Rebiya Kadeer in 2009. She was part of an initial five-member delegation supposed to come to India, but she did not apply for a visa this time.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the conference has been scaled down and gone behind doors, but it is still being held in the hill town. A photo posted on the Facebook page of one of the overseas participants showed a courtyard with tables \u2013 with a caption \u201cset up at the venue\u201d.<\/p>\n Earlier on Monday, The Wire<\/em> had spoken to the main organiser of the event, Yang Jianli<\/a> of Initiatives for China and he had indicated that the conference, which was to bring together democracy activists from all over the world, will now becompletely closed to the media<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lu Jinghua, who fled to the US after the Tiananmen square crackdown, was not allowed to board her flight on 27 April with authorities informing her that her e-visa had been denied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}