Keralite denied Australian visa |
An aerospace engineer educated at IIT Kanpur was denied visa by Australian authorities because they believed the engineer could be involved in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The stunning revelation was made by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor who uploaded a letter he wrote to foreign minister Sushma Swaraj asking her to look into the issue on his Twitter account.Tharoor said the issue concerning Thiruvananthapuram`s Ananth SM, who had applied for a visa after he was offered a fully-funded PhD by University of Melbourne, entailed serious implications for India`s ties with Australia.After Tharoor took up the matter with the Australian high commissioner , Ananth was issued a letter which cast aspersions on his motives in going to Australia and implied that he could be involved in proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Later, Ananth received a formal rejection of his visa application from the high commission which again expressed suspicion about his motives.Tharoor urged Sushma to urgently take up the matter with her Australian counterpart as the case reflected "a matter of fundamental principle where a friendly country , taking no notice of our exemplary record on nuclear non-proliferation, has treated an Indian citizen as they would somebody from a rogue nation".
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