India has asked China not to discriminate against visa applications filed by its nationals on grounds of domicile and ethnicity.
In response to a question on a report published in The Hindu on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said: “It is our considered view and position that there should be no discrimination against visa applicants of Indian nationality on grounds of domicile or ethnicity. We have conveyed our well-justified concern to the Chinese government in this regard.”
The Hindu reported the practice of the Chinese Embassy here of issuing visas to Indian passport holders from Jammu and Kashmir on a separate sheet of paper instead of stamping them in their passports. The Chinese had issued “stapled visas” to Indian passport holders from Arunachal Pradesh since 2007. As a result, immigration authorities turned back some of the “visa” holders fearing that they were fake.
