Bollywood actor and BJP sympathiser Anupam Kher on Tuesday said he had been denied a visa by Pakistan to attend the annual Karachi Literature Festival beginning Friday, even as the Pakistani high comm
Bollywood actor and BJP sympathiser Anupam Kher on Tuesday said he had been denied a visa by Pakistan to attend the annual Karachi Literature Festival beginning Friday, even as the Pakistani high commission in Delhi refuted this, saying he had never applied for any visa.
But despite the Pakistani official version, there was apparently more than meets the eye. Ms Ameena Syed, the spokesperson for the KLF, told news agency PTI from Karachi that they had been advised by the Pakistan high commission in New Delhi to tell Kher not to submit a visa application as he would not be issued one, adding, “That is all we have been told. They told us that the remaining 17 guests invited from India should be asked to submit applications as they would be issued visas,” she said.
Sources in the Pakistan government were cited by news agency reports as saying in Karachi that since Kher is very much active and vocal in the social media on sensitive issues pertaining to religion and Indo-Pak relations, he was not asked to submit his application.
Kher, meanwhile, suggested that the Pakistani decision may have been influenced by his stand on the issue of Kashmiri Pandits and his support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Terming the incident “unfortunate,” the BJP said it will be a “setback” to the process of people-to-people contact to help improve ties between the two countries.
Kher was one of the 18 Indians invited to the four-day prestigious event by the organisers but he said he is the only one who has been denied the visa. The other 17 Indian participants who have been given the travel document included, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid and actor Nandita Das, according to news agency reports from Karachi.
Rejecting the Pakistan high commission’s contention that he had not applied for a visa, Kher called it a “laughable explanation”. He said organisers had completed the formalities for the visa.
“I do not know why they denied me the visa. Is it because of my patriotism, because I talk about my country. Is it because I do not go to that country and criticise my country there. I do not speak the language of terrorists. There can be millions of reasons,” an anguished Kher was quoted as saying.
“I am very sad and disappointed that so many people were given visa but I was the only one who has been denied it. We welcome their artists in India. If there are objections to their performance at one place in India they are welcome at other places. But there is no reciprocity,” Mr. Kher was quoted as telling news agency PTI.
On the Pakistan high commission’s claim that he had not applied for the visa, Kher said if it was true then how 17 other people got the document and that why the organisers had put his name in their posters.
“They are telling a lie. I do not have to do it. The organisers had done it,” the actor said.
