Visa wrangle hits Canada World Cup plans

[HowardRoark]

If every country in the world thinks like Indian government' date= then you are right.

Fortunately they do, except for maybe China and Sri Lanka :giggle:

[HowardRoark]

Canadian team also includes Indian based players and they had no problems in visa. Why were they granted visas easily?? Who knows one of them turns out to be another David Headley!!!

But David Headley helped to bomb India, not Pakistan. Is this the famed lahori logic? On well, you have Afridi in your moniker, I should have known it already.

[HowardRoark]

This is wholly unnecessary. If Canadian immigration officials think these three Pakistani-born men are clean enough to live in and represent Canada, then that should be good enough for the Indian home ministry.

Flawed logic! You are right only if these men think the same of India and Canada, which everyone knows is not true. Canada is one of their paradises for good life and India is their archenemy, whom it is worth dying for. So what's good for Canada might not be good for everybody else.

[Mamu]

If every country in the world thinks like Indian government' date=' then you are right.[/quote'] What makes you think every (or at least most) country in the world DOES NOT think so? You have to be blind folded to be thinking otherwise.

[Mariyam]

@ Mamu, There are two distinct issues here. The first issue is the due diligence that is expected from the Government before they grant the visas. The government has to be clear on its policies, whom to grant visas to, whom not to grant visas to etc. That of course is 'national security', and trumps every other matter. It is unfortunate that it took a 'Headley' to open the eyes of the government. Whether profiling people from a certain country or those whose origins are from a certain country is the right way to make India safe, is a different discussion altogether, but lets not go into it. For the sake of argument, lets assume thats what the government decides to do, and it is the law. The second issue here is the lack of the government to communicate its policy with the BCCI and of the BCCI with the ICC/ Canadian cricket association. The GoI should make it very explicit to the BCCI that they may deny visas (if need be) to certain individuals. And the BCCI should tell that in advance to the ICC and the respective country federations. In case of Canada, it is rather unfortunate that their 3 best players ( as per the article in the OP) couldn't practice with the team and may not even get their visas. Pretty harsh on the Canadian team. Definitely hurts their chances. And for what fault of the rest of the team mates? Just because the chose players whom they thought are the best for their cricket team. We knew we were hosting the WC from quite some time. The GoI should have told the BCCI and the BCCI should have asked the Canadians for a list of all probably players and clarified ages ago that some of them might have to undergo screening/ long checks etc much in advance. Not hampered their training. And the whole thing reeks of hypocrisy. What about the Pakistani team? And their visa status? What about Shoaib Mailk when he came to marry Sania? The GoI didn't delay his visa :P What about the various Pakistani artists who stay and perform in Bollywood. Adnan Sami is a British Pakistani. You get the drift. Lets have a standard rule that applies to all.

[Mamu]

@ Mamu, There are two distinct issues here. The first issue is the due diligence that is expected from the Government before they grant the visas. The government has to be clear on its policies, whom to grant visas to, whom not to grant visas to etc. That of course is 'national security', and trumps every other matter. It is unfortunate that it took a 'Headley' to open the eyes of the government. Whether profiling people from a certain country or those whose origins are from a certain country is the right way to make India safe, is a different discussion altogether, but lets not go into it. For the sake of argument, lets assume thats what the government decides to do, and it is the law. The second issue here is the lack of the government to communicate its policy with the BCCI and of the BCCI with the ICC/ Canadian cricket association. The GoI should make it very explicit to the BCCI that they may deny visas (if need be) to certain individuals. And the BCCI should tell that in advance to the ICC and the respective country federations. In case of Canada, it is rather unfortunate that their 3 best players ( as per the article in the OP) couldn't practice with the team and may not even get their visas. Pretty harsh on the Canadian team. Definitely hurts their chances. And for what fault of the rest of the team mates? Just because the chose players whom they thought are the best for their cricket team. We knew we were hosting the WC from quite some time. The GoI should have told the BCCI and the BCCI should have asked the Canadians for a list of all probably players and clarified ages ago that some of them might have to undergo screening/ long checks etc much in advance. Not hampered their training.

If Indian GOvt was that organized -- we probably would nt have had a David Headley sneaking into this country. We can only do so much given our asinine policies and laid back babus. Bottom line given our infrastructure and what ever f**ked up policies we have --we have to do our best to stop that from happening yet again -- which means oridnary citizens will get affected.

And the whole thing reeks of hypocrisy. What about the Pakistani team? And their visa status? What about Shoaib Mailk when he came to marry Sania? The GoI didn't delay his visa :P What about the various Pakistani artists who stay and perform in Bollywood. Adnan Sami is a British Pakistani. You get the drift. Lets have a standard rule that applies to all.

Hypocricy ? What makes you think the Paki cricketers are not subjected to scrutiny -- they probably all have been considering they have visited this country so many times. Also don't forget -- Pakis have a whole different visa policy where they are not supposed to leave the city where the visa is applied for unlike Candians and Others where they are free to roam about where ever they want to.