American Scholars Not Welcome in India

[Guest guest]

HinduThought, "Ashok Chowgule" <ashokvc wrote:

I do not know if there is any merit for rejecting the application.

However, if something like this had happened during the NDA government,

the secular media and the eminent scholars in India would have been

screaming from the roof top about how anti-intellectualism the

government is.

 

Namaste.

Ashok Chowgule

 

 

Indian Express

Sunday, February, 2007

Are you an American scholar? You aren't welcome in India

Shubhajit Roy

 

That's the signal from the UPA to Fulbright scholars in the US: delaying

their visas for weeks, months; rejecting their research proposals

without

any reason. Even asking them to change their subject. This when Indo-US

equation couldn't have been better

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 :For all the talk about a buzzing, confident

India,

there couldn't be a better - or, to be more accurate, worse - showcase

of

how some things haven't changed than this: the country, which is on its

way

towards signing a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, whose

engagement with Washington is a centrepiece of its foreign policy, makes

US

scholars virtually bend and crawl when it comes to their visiting India

for

research.

 

 

The Sunday Express accessed latest official records on the Indo-US

Fulbright

programme, one of the most prestigious bilateral scholar-exchange

programmes, under which about 100 scholars from India go to the US and

an

equal number of Americans come here to pursue research with relevant

institutions. Fulbright scholars - including graduates from premier

universities, like Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley and Chicago - have gone

on to

win 34 Nobels and more than 60 Pulitzer Prizes.

 

Records show that for US scholars, the last two years - since the UPA

came

to power - have been the worst in the 57-year history of the programme.

Not

only has the Government kept the highest number of scholars waiting for

anywhere between anywhere between six months to 21 months - effectively

derailing their entire schedule - it has also, in several cases,

rejected

research proposals without giving any reason.

 

Sample the subjects rejected by the babus of this "secular" Government:

Democratization in Kerala and the role of associations; perceptions of

Muslim women; Left politics in Mumbai; how migration affects Hindus and

Muslims in Hyderabad and Dubai. Many scholars refused to re-apply while

some

changed their subjects to get a visa (see chart).

 

Significantly, the scholars get no explanation why their research

proposals

have been rejected.

 

While Indian scholars, selected under the Fulbright programme, get their

visas from anywhere between two hours to two weeks, US scholars are told

that the Indian government needs "three months" to process their

application. Even those three months are only on paper.

 

At the beginning of the academic year, in August 2006, when the

Fulbright

scholars should have been in India, there were 93 applications pending

for

grant of visas of a total of 100. And this included not just last year's

pending applications, but also some from 2005.

 

So delayed was the process that the Fulbright Commission in India,

popularly

known as the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI), had

little choice but to cancel its August orientation programme. And 33

scholars sent an angry letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

asking her to intervene.

 

As of today, over six months into the academic year, there are still

eight

applications pending. Another seven are still waiting for their visas

after

they changed their subject.

Key to the delay is the stifling red tape: HRD, the nodal ministry,

first

gets the visa applications from scholars through USEFI; it then sends

each

scholar's file to the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry

which, in turn, asks the Intelligence Bureau for clearance. Sometimes,

even

the Ministry concerned is asked to vet the subject. For example, the

Environment Ministry may be asked to clear a research proposal on

India's

energy needs.

 

While HRD officials do not specify who decides on the "suitability" of

the

proposal, sources said an "IB-negative report" or a Ministry's

"concerns"

lead to the blacklist.

 

When asked to explain the delay, HRD Secretary R P Agarwal said: "Our

Ministry is only a postbox. We have asked the MEA and Home Ministry to

speed

up clearances."

 

(Tomorrow: Desperate scholars appeal to US Secretary of State)

 

 

 

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