Janjivan Bureau / New Delhi : The Government of India has reviewed the Adverse List containing 314 foreign nationals belonging to Sikh community and brought it down to just two.
This review is a continuous and dynamic process and is part of a regular exercise. Such a review will afford an opportunity to such Sikh foreign nationals to visit India, meet their families and reconnect to their roots, Home Ministry sources said on Friday.
During 1980s, many Indian nationals and foreign nationals belonging to Sikh community fell to anti-India propaganda. Some Sikh Indian nationals fled India to escape Indian authorities, became foreign nationals and took asylum outside India. They were placed in the adverse list till 2016, making them ineligible to avail visa services to visit India.
One major issue coming in the way of grant of consular/visa services to such asylees and their families, mostly belonging to Sikh community, was maintenance of local adverse lists by Indian Missions. This practice has also been discontinued.
Consequently, all Indian Missions/Posts abroad have been advised to grant appropriate visa to all categories of asylees and derivative asylees (ie, families) whose names do not figure in the Central Adverse List, in line with the procedure followed for other categories of applicants of that nationality.
Second, all categories of asylees who became eligible for issuance of long-term Indian visa would also be eligible to apply for registration as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder after they had applied for and held normal visas for a period of two years, sources added.
