Massive liberalisation of Visa-on-Arrival (VoA) is a sequel to “ordinance-is-nonsense” drama enacted by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The difference is that this particular assertion of Mr Gandhi’s growing authority – and capitulation of established structures – has been achieved without fuss. Mandate to deliver it was left to pro-change satraps like planning minister Rajeev Shukla and Tourism Secretary Parvez Dewan.
The duo nudged Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon into dittoing that passport holders from US, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Poland, Norway and Ireland can soon start walking into designated airports of India availing VoA.
With Rahul in the picture, murmuring by the Intelligence Bureau – the agency reports to Home Minister Sushil Shinde and manages our immigration regime at home and abroad - was meek. So much that that no one’s sure if there’s any counter view to opening our doors to all and sundry from such countries.
VoA took off on January 1, 2010 with just 5 countries: Japan, Singapore, Finland, luxembourg and New Zealand. Cambodia, laos, Vietnam and the Philippines got VoA a year later. The service was limited to four metro airports. Myanmar and Indonesia were added two months later on February 28, 2011.
In March 2013, an official list of 16 more countries was proposed for VoA, including Germany, France, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brunei. At that time Mr Gandhi wasn’t in the picture, so Home Minister Sushil Shinde managed a deferment.
NB: There was no mention of the US and the UK until then So, it is hard to guess where the US, the UK, Canada, or even Italy and Switzerland got woven in all of a suddenIJ
If IB is squirming, ditto for mandarins in Salman Khurshid’s ministry of external affairs. Norms dictate that a country of India’s size and self respect ceded VoA to, say, the US, the UK, Brazil, UAE, France, or Italy, under a reciprocal arrangement.
The asymmetry with which Indian applicants are treated is all too well known – the UK even contemplating a bond for some classes of Indian applicants putting us in the company of Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri lankans, Nigerians and Ghanaians! But in the instant case, there was Mr Gandhi now awaiting an action-taken–report.
Hence the seemingly impeccable logic that our current account deficit, which is the difference between inflow and outflow of foreign exchange, and at 4.8 per cent of GDP or $88.2 billion in 2012-13, needs the tonic of overseas tourism.
Also that in 2012 we received 6.58 million foreign tourists which took forex earnings from tourism to $17.74 billion, up 7.1 per cent year on year. (Earnings during January to August 2013 were $12.025 billion having grown at 6.7 per cent year on year. The idea is to flog12,716 VoAs issued between January and August this year, up 25 per cent of the corresponding period last year, and claim that Rahul did it.) Two quick posers on this arm twisting of Uncle Manmohan government.
First, what can we achieve by inviting new tourists, via a “hassle-free” VoA system when the product post arrival is patchy, the flights can’t be trusted, the rip off for budget tourists is ingrained, and hotels and guides aren’t accountable even to God AlmightyIJ
Second, did our Government tell the aam Indian that the only countries (and territories) where our passport gets us in without a visa (even if we overlook the conditionalities) are: Cook Islands, Federated States of Macedonia, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, Palan, Samoa, Tuvalu and Vanuatu in Oceana; Albania, Andorra, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hungary, Ireland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, and Romania in Europe (often linked to possession of the Schenghen visa); and Bhutan, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, laos, Jordan, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, South Korea (limited to Jeju Islands), Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand and TurkeyIJ
(The columnist is CEO & Co-Founder, India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting llP. Tweets @therohitbansal).