A day after the Australian Foreign Ministry cited proliferation concerns while rejecting an Indian engineer’s visa application to study in Australia, the country said that the “specific” case should not be used to examine its support to India’s outreach for hi-tech.
Defending its decision to keep the student out of Australia, the High Commission of Australia said, “It should be noted…Australia strongly supports India’s application to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and India’s admission to other export control regimes. We are strong supporters of India’s peaceful use of nuclear energy...”
The High Commission’s statement came after the Department of Immigration and Border Protection rejected the application of a student of IIT-Kanpur Ananth S.M. saying that his planned research in high tech (“fluid dynamics”) was against the foreign policy objectives of Australia.
In the rejection letter sent to the student, the Department of Immigration and Border Control of Australia said, “As you were determined by the Foreign Minister (or a person authorised by the Foreign Minister) to be a person whose presence in Australia may be directly or indirectly associated with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, this means that you have failed to meet PIC 4003(b). The Migration Act 1958 requires that your application be refused if the Minister (or a delegate) is not satisfied that you meet all of the criteria for the visa.”
‘Preposterous decision’Mr. Ananth told The Hindu that the decision to deny him a visa citing proliferation concerns is “preposterous”. “My research was meant to be a purely academic exercise without any other implications,” Mr. Ananth said.
