'It's A Specific Case Dealing With A Specific Visit'

Relevant extracts from the daily press briefing by the deputy spokesman of the US State Department, Washington, DC on March21, 2005

Question: A new -- another subject. According to the pressreports, a lot -- I mean, including an Indian Globe article, Dr. Ricehad a good visit to India. But another reports are saying that she leftthe visa controversy behind. Dr. Modi's visa, a lot had been said andwritten about it, but my question is only two part: one, if thedecision was taken at the highest level with the Secretary Rice or fromthe Embassy level; and two, government of India, Prime MinisterManmohan Singh had requested a review, so where do you stand on thesethings?

Adam Ereli: Two points. One is, Secretary Rice did have anexcellent visit to India. There were -- Secretary Rice and the PrimeMinister and foreign minister were able to talk about all aspects ofwhat is a strengthening relationship between the United States andIndia and we look forward to taking that relationship to an evengreater strategic partnership. And that is, I think, the overallimpression one would take away from the visit.

The issue of this visa, frankly, I think, should be separated entirelyfrom the broader issue of U.S.-India relations. Why? Because it's aspecific case dealing with a specific visit. It has nothing to do withbilateral relationships -- relations. It has nothing to do with ourclose partnership and good friendship with India. It is a technicalmatter related to a visa application.

For reasons I outlined last week, the visa that Chief Minister appliedfor was not given because the purposes of his visit did not coincidewith the type of visa that he was requesting and also an existing visawas revoked because under the terms of our law the person in questiondid not qualify for a visa, given his involvement in -- or not hisinvolvement -- given the findings of Indian commissions ininvestigating actions or lack of actions by state institutions andreligious conflict in Gujarat state. So that's with regard to the visitand the decision.

With regard to the appeal, our Ambassador in India, Ambassador Mulford,put out a statement today noting that the Ministry of External Affairshad requested that the Department of State review the decision, andupon review of the State Department, reaffirmed the original decision.This was done at the -- well, I'll have to check -- I think it was doneprobably at the working level.

Question: I just have a quick one more, please. Are you going to-- with what you said bilateral relations are important than thissituation with the visa controversy separate from that, what message doyou think you have for the Indian-American community here, at largelyover 500,000 from his state in the United States, and who are mostlybusinessmen or hotel and motel owners. They are protesting here. Andwhat -- my views are really that every country, including U.S., hasright to deny visa or whom they want to issue in several countries isU.S. right.

Adam Ereli: Well, let me just be very clear. This decision was-- one should not make more of this decision than it is. It's adecision based on the application -- based on the interpretation of lawwith respect to a specific request for a visa. It is not a reflectionof our views of the government of Gujarat or the people of Gujarat or areflection of our bilateral relations.

To the contrary, what I will tell you is that we are deeplyappreciative of the role that the both the BJP and the Vajpayee government have played in opening the way for positive transformationof U. S.-Indian relations. And I would also [mention] the great respect the UnitedStates has for the many successful Gujaratis who live and work in theUnited States and the thousands who are issued visas to the UnitedStates each month.

Question: Adam, you exceed your question. Normally, you don'tdiscuss individual visa applications. You have made an exception inthis one. Why is that?

Adam Ereli: Not really. In certain cases, you can give the reasons for denial of the visa, in which we've done in this one.

Question: I think it's an exception.

Adam Ereli: I have asked that question. I asked that specificquestion and my information is that in certain cases when visas arerefused you can speak to the reasons for those refusals in terms of thelaw.

Question: Thank you.