The Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed on Thursday that two more Chinese activists, Ray Wong, and Lu Jinghua, had been denied visas, preventing them from attending an anti-Beijing event at Dharamsala.
On Sunday, New Delhi had > cancelled the visa for prominent Uighur-Chinese dissident Dolkun Isa, who was also to attend the event.
Officials said the cancellations came after the Union Home Ministry introduced new checks to plug loopholes in the electronic visa system.
Lu Jinghua, a prominent activist for democracy in China, tweeted in protest, on Thursday after she was stopped from boarding an AI aircraft from New York City for the event which is underway in Dharamsala. So far four pro-democracy activists including Mr. Isa have had their valid e-visas cancelled.
“We have received some information from the Ministry of Home Affairs on both these cases. In so far as Lu Jinghua is concerned, her documents were illegible and there were inconsistency with the purpose of her visit. Insofar as Ray Wong is concerned, there was data inconsistency in his documents. As such visas were not issued to both these individuals,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.
Officials said the cancellations were made after the MHA introduced new checks to plug loopholes in the electronic visa system. Earlier, the e-visa system would only scan the internal “blacklist” leaving out Interpol data which would create considerable confusion in issuance of visas in sensitive cases. But on Thursday, officials said the new move would streamline the e-visa system through an integration of the domestic blacklist with Interpol data, which will ensure more vigorous checks. “Earlier we were only checking the blacklist maintained by our intelligence agencies before granting the E-TV, now we will also factor in Interpol's data,” said the official.
