Visa refusal from India puts Afghan students’ future at stake

ISLAMABAD: Indian government put the academic career of Afghan students enrolled in Indian universities at stake by revoking their visas.

Out of 14,000 Afghan students currently enrolled in 73 Indian universities, 2,500 were restrained from returning to India. Such a callous Indian attitude towards Afghan people is nothing new as India was among the first nations that closed their missions in Afghanistan, suspended flights between New Delhi and Kabul and halted bank payments to the Afghan government.

Contrary to India, Pakistan has offered 4,500 fully-funded scholarships to Afghan students in addition to already existing ones. Since August 2021, out of 60,000 Afghan applications, India has granted less than 300 e-visas and that too to Afghan Sikhs and Hindus which was the manifestation of the Hindutva mindset of the BJP-led government.

Recently, hundreds of Afghan students also held a demonstration outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul seeking visas to complete their studies in India. The protesting students are yet to resume their courses after lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in India.

In a statement, Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar claimed that nobody could doubt India’s feelings for Afghan people. The Indian media quoted him saying that the visas would be issued once certain level of trust and efficiency was achieved with Afghanistan, which, according to the analysts manifested the Indian hypocrisy.

Afghan students enrolled in India claim that authorities in the Indian universities often accused them of being potential drug peddlers and terrorists. Afghanistan Ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay also expressed concerns over New Delhi’s security apprehensions, saying, “No Afghan citizen has ever carried out any major terror attack in another country, so these students should not be unnecessarily suspected on security grounds.”