By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: After his Cairo university speech many foreign policy experts claimed that unlike Bush administration, the Obama presidency in US will ease religious/racial profiling of Muslims, but as the case of eminent Indian wildlife-biologist Fayyaz Khudsar is any thing to go by, it seems that this vicious American monster is still very much in practice.
Mr. Khudsar, who is also winner of Carl Zeiss Wildlife Conservation Award 2008, was invited by the prestigious US-based Smithsonian institute to attend a fully funded training programme for the tiger’s conservation starting from 1-15th of June 2010. But the US embassy denied him visa at the last moment and that too without any explanation.
Afraid of any controversy being created out of the link between his religious identity and the denial of visa, Mr. Khudsar initially refused to give interview to many Indian news channels like Times now. But talking to TwoCircles.net he pointed out: “I don’t want to emphasize on my religious identity but it seems there is some thing in my name because of which I was denied visa. I would certainly call it an instance of religious profiling otherwise there was apparently no reason why I shouldn’t be given the US visa. If some thing ridiculous like this can happen to me then what will happen to other ordinary people?“
Mr. Khudsar who is also scientist-in-charge of Delhi based Yamuna Biological diversity Park, told TwoCircles.net: “I had given three interviews at the US embassy after which they had assured me that there are only few procedures yet to be completed and I would be given the visa before my scheduled departure on 1st of June. But I didn’t get so I kept on writing them about it and finally in the month of June I requested the US embassy to return my passport.”
Shocked by this last moment goof up he also wrote a letter to US Ambassador asking “under which circumstances he was denied visa?” He forwarded that letter to many Indian ministers and officials like minister of foreign affairs, environment and minority affairs besides director, Wild Life Institute of India. But it’s only Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh who has taken up his case seriously and has written a letter to the US Ambassador to look into the issue.
Mr. Khudsar, who is famous for his pioneering work in developing Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary for the Asiatic Lion Reintroduction Programme was selected besides 10 other eminent wildlife conservationists for this training programme which was organized by Wild life institute of India and Smithsonian institute, Virginia.
On its part the US embassy has refused any allegation of religious and racial profiling.
[Photo by delhigreens.com]