ndia’s protests against China issuing stapled visas to Jammu and Kashmir residents may have had some impact. Tanya Gupta, a singer from the state, has been issued a stamped visa.
Gupta will be in Guangzhou on an invitation from the Chinese to perform at the Asian Games closing ceremony on November 27.
“It might be an indication of a shift in China’s visa policy for Jammu and Kashmir residents,” an official of the Chinese embassy said. But other sources cautioned that this might be a one-off incident.
“Unlike in the case of Arunachal Pradesh (the Chinese issue stapled visas to everyone travelling from that state), they have not been consistent about Jammu and Kashmir. There have been instances of them issuing stamped visas to people they have invited,” a source said.
The Chinese have for a couple of years been issuing the visa on a separate sheet stapled to the passports of Jammu and Kashmir residents. New Delhi sees this as China’s way of questioning the state’s status as a part of India.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to take up the issue of stapled visas with Wen Jiabao when the Chinese Premier visits New Delhi in mid-December. Indications are that the Chinese may relent on Jammu and Kashmir.
National security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon will be in China at the end of this month for boundary talks. Earlier this month, foreign secretary Nirupama Rao had raised the issue with her Chinese counterparts in Beijing.
Sources said the Indian delegation had relayed a veiled threat that if Beijing continued to issue stapled visas to Jammu and Kashmir residents, Delhi might do the same for the Chinese from Tibet.
The external affairs ministry has already given the Jamia Millia Islamia the go-ahead to confer an honorary doctorate on the Dalai Lama.
“It is an academic decision and not a government decision,” a ministry official insisted.
However, the ministry had in the recent past asked universities not to award such degrees to the Tibetan spiritual leader to avoid ruffling Beijing’s feathers.
