The Hindu : A tale of two visas

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 15, 2003

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National

A tale of two visas

By Amit Baruah

Asma Jehangir

NEW DELHI Jan. 14. Asma Jehangir is one of the best known Pakistanis. Her commitment to civil society, her activism is a shining example not just in South Asia, but to the rest of the world. Ms. Jehangir, who lives in Lahore and has visited India on several occasions, was recently denied a visa by New Delhi to attend the Asian Social Forum meeting in Hyderabad. But if Ms. Jehangir fell victim to the Government of India's hardline approach, another Pakistani, Naseem Zehra, a pro-establishment journalist, was luckier.

In 2002, Ms. Zehra was given a visa twice by the Government of India and she lived in New Delhi for several weeks and met senior officials of the Vajpayee Government. She was here at the worst time of tensions between Pakistan and India and was able to meet people freely in the capital while working on a book. As Pakistan-watchers know, Ms. Zehra, along with commentators like Shireen Mazari, are close to the permanent establishment of Pakistan — the elaborate military-intelligence network. Day after day, Ms. Zehra and Ms. Mazari are deployed on Pakistan Television to ``bash'' India. While Ms. Zehra is more sophisticated, her proximity to Pakistan's permanent establishment is well-known. But this is not about why Ms. Zehra was given a visa. It is about why Asma Jehangir was not given a visa. Everytime she is in India, Ms. Jehangir speaks her mind and that New Delhi did not want at this stage of the bilateral relationship.

Everyone knows that Pakistan, as a nation of 140 million persons, is beset with social problems — intolerance, attacks on minorities, the ordinances and the blasphemy laws. If anyone has had the courage to raise such issues and fight such cases, it is Ms. Jehangir and the larger Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). They are the undoubted pillars of the Pakistani civil society and have been at the receiving end of the ire of extremist Islamist forces.

Ms. Jehangir is known to require personal protection. Instead of India strengthening Pakistani civil society, whose voice is a counter to the larger Islamist project, New Delhi has ended up shutting out the saner voices that emanate from Lahore and Islamabad. But the door was open to Ms. Zehra; not to Ms. Jehangir. This can only raise questions about the motives of the Indian establishment. If India is able to influence the larger trajectory of South Asia, such thoughtless action, as demonstrated in the decision relating to Ms. Jehangir, can only act as a speed-breaker.

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