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The UK Home Office on Monday said it was going ahead with the plan to charge a cash bond of £3,000 (about Rs 2.75 lakh) from visitors from six countries, including India. With this, the UK has gone back on its word given to Commerce & Industry Minister Anand Sharma last month that it would not charge the same to Indians.
In its statement, the British Home Office said it would go ahead with the refundable bond scheme for "high-risk" visitors from the six countries comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana, adding it hoped the system would deter these visitors from overstaying on expiry of their visas. The money thus collected would be used to recover costs from foreign nationals using its public services, said the UK Home Office.
According to sources, when Sharma met British business secretary Vince Cable in June in London, he was told the matter had been taken up with the British home secretary who reassured such a pilot proposal was not being considered.
The UK's decision to include India in its bond scheme is puzzling, considering that British prime minister David Cameron had described his country as a "partner of choice" for India during his first visit to Delhi in late 2011.
During Cameron's visit, India and the UK had signed defence deals worth £700 million -£500 million for BAE Systems and £200 million for Rolls Royce - for building 57 Hawk trainer aircraft at Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, in Bangalore. This was in addition to the 66 Hawk jets earlier contracted by India.
Then as well as in February this year, when Cameron part-apologised in Amritsar for the Jallianwala Bagh killings in April 1919, the India-UK relationship has been widely debated for its strategic content and how it compares with India's other special partnerships.
The cash bond issue was, in fact, discussed only last week at a senior level between officials of India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the UK Foreign Office in London. The Indian team, led by Additional Secretary Ghanshyam, met counterparts for consular-level talks, where he was assured a final decision had not been taken. The MEA delegation registered its protest, pointing out if such a scheme was notified, it would attack the very foundation of the people-to-people relationship between India and the UK. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said in a statement it was "disappointed" by the UK decision, which was "not in the spirit of the special relationship" between the two countries. The president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci), Naina Lal Kidwai, had earlier said if this scheme went through, then it would become a "dampener" to an otherwise flourishing relationship.
Vindi Banga, chairman of Ficci's UK Advisory Group, who incidentally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday along with Kidwai, had pointed out when the first reports of such a scheme came in: "A high-risk status for visas for Indian visitors to the UK is 180 degrees opposite to Prime Minister David Cameron's emphasis on a special relationship with India. If true, this move will adversely impact students, tourists and business alike. Britain will also lose out lakhs of Indian tourists and airlines and travel operators' business between the two countries."
However, it also seems that the UK Home Office is infuriating its own government in other ways as well. A recent Home Office publicity campaign targeting illegal immigrants in the UK has been described as "stupid and offensive" by none other than the same Vince Cable.
The posters, which have been plastered in parts of London, say, "In the UK illegally? Go home or face arrest." MEA officials have told Business Standard that the UK agrees it has no figures for Indian visitors overstaying their visas in the UK, simply because their Immigration department doesn't clock exit entries.
The MEA officials said they hoped the last word had not been spoken on the matter by the UK Home Office, and the British government would take an appropriate view on it.
