The Indian missions and consulates across the globe are “dens of corruption”, where officials harass NRIs on frivolous issues, besides demanding huge bribes for clearing travel documents and issuing visas.
This is the general perception of the Punjabi diaspora who have dealt with babudom abroad, says Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is back from a month-long visit to the USA.
Flanked by NRIs from various countries, he told mediapersons in Jalandhar that the officials deliberately withheld the papers of Punjabis and abused them for no apparent reason. In fact the pendency list of visa seekers in the US consulates alone ran into thousands, he pointed out, according to The Tribune.
Citing an instance, he said the officials demanded bribes ranging from $2,000 for lesser offences and the price could cross $5,000 in case of those who have sought asylum. Many who could not or did not want to pay up had to wait for months before simple inquiries or formalities were dealt with routinely, he revealed.
“Then there is the blacklist about which there is no information anywhere. Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal had sought the names of those who figured in the list from the Centre conveniently ignoring such a list of the Punjab Police I sent him sometime back,” he added.
The condition of asylum seekers was the most deplorable since their families, too, were denied travel documents though they were born there and no justifiable cause for preventing them from visiting India, he pointed out.
Khaira said many non-Resident Indians living abroad had a grouse against the Punjab state government that was only providing lip service while nothing had changed on the ground level.
NRIs were a soft target for their relatives who had usurped their lands and homes in connivance with bureaucrats, police and the land mafia, he said.
He said he had spoken to Minister of States for External Affairs Perneet Kaur on the issue and would meet Punjab opposition chief Capt Amarinder Singh to urge the latter to lead a high-level delegation to meet the Prime Minister of India soon on the matter.
Last summer, during the G20 meet in Toronto, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said India is reviewing the lists of Sikhs abroad who were blacklisted for their anti-Indian activities.
Canada has the largest number of hardliners who were blacklisted by New Delhi for their anti-Indian activities. Most of these people had taken asylum in Canada besides other western countries during the peak of militancy in Punjab in the 1980s.
Canadian Sikhs have made repeated representations to the India government to review these so-called blacklists to enable them visit their families in India.