New Delhi: In yet another episode of denial of either visitation rights or the freedom to speak in India, the daughter of noted Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and an eminent Pakistani media personality and peace activist, Moneeza Hashmi, 72, who was in Delhi to attend the 15th Asia Media Summit, was not allowed to take part in the event or given any official explanation for her name being dropped from the list of speakers at the last minute.There was no official response to the development till afternoon. While the event hosts, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B), claimed they were not aware of any such development, the CNN-News18 channel quoted Press Information Bureau chief Sitanshu Kar as saying that he “wasn’t aware of any such incident”. It also quoted co-host and director of Indian Institute of Media Communication KG Suresh as saying: “We have no role in this. Logistics was not being looked after by us.”According to the channel, Hashmi was listed as a speaker at the three-day event which began on May 10 and was to speak at a session on the inaugural day at 4 pm on ‘Should all good stories be commercially successful?’The summit was organised by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD), an international body hosting delegates from across the globe, while the I&B ministry was the host.There were three other participants listed along with her for the discussion. A look at the programme details revealed that Hashmi was listed as “Head of Creative and Media, KASHF Foundation, Pakistan” for the one and a half hour session.However, it appears that some elements had decided to use the event to humiliate her. Sources in Hashmi’s Faiz Foundation Trust told the channel that when Hashmi – who possesses a long-term visa for India – reached her hotel, she was told that there was no booking in her name. Subsequently, the director of AIBD, Chang Jin, also conveyed to her that she would not be able to speak at the event. “We were just informed that you cannot attend the conference,” he told her. Later on, it was conveyed to her that the “host organisation refused her participation.”The Indian Express reported that Hashmi had faced a similar situation in October last year, when she was invited to Kolkata for a conference on terrorism in South Asia.“I had a valid visa for Delhi and Amritsar. To include Kolkata in the visa, I applied multiple times, well in advance. But I was denied that too,” she told The Print by telephone.Hashmi added that it was not only she who faced this at the time. “The late human rights lawyer Asma Jehangir’s daughter Munizae Jehangir was also denied visa to attend the conference,” she said.Her son, psychiatrist and author Ali Hashmi reacted angrily to the denial of permission to his mother “after being officially invited” for the conference. Using the hashtag #Shame he tweeted to @PMO if this was #ShiningIndia.@PMOIndia @SushmaSwarajThis is your #ShiningIndia?? My 72 year old mother, daughter of #Faiz denied permission to participate in conference after being officially invited#Shamehttps://t.co/9bnc0E2OZd— Ali Hashmi (@Ali_Madeeh) May 12, 2018Meanwhile, The Citizen, quoted “sources” which said that “the government of India told the organisers of the event that she should not check into the hotel or register for the conference”.As such, it reported that after she failed to find a booking in her hotel, “she was re-booked by the organisers at another hotel, they apologised profusely, and she left for Pakistan the next morning.”Though Shimla-born Hashmi returned to Pakistan on May 13, instead of bitterness, her message to a friend only revealed slight despair but a lot of hope.“Thank you for your and other friends support. I leave it to your judgement to deal with this matter. We the Faiz Family and Faiz Foundation will continue to work for peace between our two countries. As Faiz would say ‘lambi hai gham ki shaam magar shaam hi to hai (the evening of grief is long, but it is only an evening),’” she said.Even though she was meted out such treatment, her family also kept its cool did not speak about the episode immediately as they did not want to cause any harm to relations between the two countries.Her son tweeted saying such things are common on both sides of the fence.So many supportive messages from #India as well as Pakistan. It's heartwarming and hopeful.And to those Indian friends apologizing on behalf of their government, don't. We know what you are going thru. We have lived through it as well. You don't owe us any apologies.— Ali Hashmi (@Ali_Madeeh) May 13, 2018It is the short sighted and anti-democratic people in your current government who should be apologizing to all of us. Progressive, democratic people stand together, on this and many other issues. On both sides of the border.— Ali Hashmi (@Ali_Madeeh) May 13, 2018But a number of concerned Indian citizens came out openly to criticise the Narendra Modi government for treating Hashmi this way.Noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan tweeted that it was “shameful” that the Modi government had deported the daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and stopped her from participating in the media summit. He recalled that Faiz was also a staunch opponent of the military rule in Pakistan.Shame on the Modi government for deporting Daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz from India and stopping her from participating in the Asia media summit in Delhi. Faiz was not only an outstanding Urdu poet but also a staunch opponent of the military rule in Pakistanhttps://t.co/pTaks1pZJg— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) May 13, 2018Historian and columnist Ramachandra Guha lamented that “fear-filled government of new India” had deported the daughter of Faiz, who had following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination said that his “body and voice” had become “tireless symbols of compassionate love and fearless rectitude”.In a wonderful tribute to Gandhi after he was murdered, Faiz Ahmad Faiz said the Mahatma’s "body and voice", had become "tireless symbols of compassionate love and fearless rectitude". The fear-filled Government of New India has just deported the 72 year old daughter of Faiz.— Ramachandra Guha (@Ram_Guha) May 13, 2018According to The Hindu, government sources claimed that after the reports, they too tried to get a clarification from AIBD, but haven’t yet heard from them. The AIBD did not reply to the e-mail sent to them. A senior government official said that many last-minute changes were made to the speaker’s list.This is the first time that India hosted the summit. The Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development, Kuala Lumpur, comes under the UNESCO umbrella. It is an inter-governmental organisation servicing countries of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in the field of electronic media development.Incidentally, the manner in which Hashmi was treated follows a trend witnessed in the Modi era in which “inconvenient” people have either not been allowed to enter the country or barred from airing their views.In January this year, former Swiss diplomat Kurt Vogele was blacklisted and deported as the government suspected him of having links with an NGO. The decision was seen by many as linked to his organisation, the Swiss Development Cooperation’s, funding of the Navsarjan Trust, which had been championing the cause of the Dalits in Gujarat and elsewhere.Just a little prior to this incident, the government had denied visas to a team of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and also to a senior and well-respected Australian journalist, Phillip Adams, who hosts the radio show Late Night Live and wanted to visit India to do a series of stories.Just six days ago, in a piece for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Amruta Slee wrote about how she and her team were denied a visa because of a story.“For months colleagues and I have been working on a series of programmes about India since independence for Radio National. We received a grant to travel to the sub-continent and interview the country’s best and brightest: historians, economists, investigative journalists, satirists, environmentalists, academics, architects and student leaders.“We were advised to apply for journalist visas back in December, well ahead of our planned flight in February. We waited. And waited”, she said.Then finally, the correspondent wrote, “with days to go, a highly placed government source admitted there was a problem: It’s about the Adani story”.On what probably led to the denial of visa, the writer noted:“In October last year, reporter Stephen Long and the Four Corners team dug into the dealings of the company behind the controversial Adani coal mine and found a history of environmental and corporate malfeasance. It was a hard-hitting piece but still it seemed incredible that it could affect our visit.”