Kurt Vögele was deported by the Ahmedabad immigration officials on January 22 despite having a valid passport and visa.Former Swiss diplomat Kurt Vögele. Credit: FacebookNew Delhi: With a month having passed without the Centre providing any explanation as to why it unceremoniously detained and deported former Swiss diplomat Kurt Vögele, despite his arriving in the country on a valid passport and visa and being known as a “longtime friend of India”, a group of 45 civil society leaders, academics and professionals have written to foreign minister Sushma Swaraj to protest against the government’s action.Stating that the government owes and explanation to Vögele for being ‘blacklisted’ without any prior intimation, the group has also demanded that the blacklisting be “revoked forthwith”, and as a gracious gesture the government of India should invite him to visit India in the early future. They also pointed out to the MEA that 75-year-old Vögele deserved an apology for the treatment meted out to him.The Wire had earlier reported how Vögele had protested the denial of visa in a letter to the Ambassador of India in Switzerland. The letter recalls how the incident had taken place at Ahmedabad airport on January 22, 2018 when Vögele was deported despite the fact that he had a valid visa issued by the Indian consulate in Geneva. “Worse, he was blacklisted and told he had “no right” to enter India, without giving any reason,” the group had pointed out.Making a mention of how Vögele had been a “longtime friend of India, who has been with the Swiss Development Corporation (SDC) for several decades,” the group noted with concern that despite his strong credentials his passport was confiscated and returned to him only on his return to Geneva. “You can imagine the shock, apprehension and anxiety of a 75-year-old man at being so undeservedly isolated and stripped of his right of entry,” the concerned group members said in the letter to Swaraj.Recalling the former diplomat’s long association with India, the civil society members said: “He has spent 13 years in India, in the main serving as country director of SDC, an arm of the Swiss Foreign Ministry. During his last spell he was its country director (counsellor) in the Swiss Embassy in Delhi from 2000 to 2005. He has worked with such eminent people as MS Swaminathan, ex-director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and partnered with the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), NABARD, MILMA (Malabar Union), Calicut, and the Kerala Institute for Local Administration (Thrissur), and was instrumental providing major assistance during the devastating 2001 earthquake in Kutch.”Also readGaurav Vivek Bhatnagar’s report on the possible reasons behind Vögele’s deportationA human rights activist’s account of being deported from IndiaThe scrutiny faced by foreigners wanting to do research in IndiaDespite having been associated with India for so long, the letter lamented that “a person of Mr Vögele’s age and stature had to face humiliation is difficult to comprehend”. Stating that Vögele believes that he has been “wronged, saddened and violated”, the letter has demanded that “given the harsh arbitrary and unreasonable treatment meted out to him”, he deserves and explanation and an apology.“In order to repair the considerable damage such actions do to India’s image abroad – especially the image held by friendly and democratic countries – it would be a gracious gesture for the government of India to invite Mr Vögele to visit India in the early future. This would go some way to repair the damage the shocking decision has caused,” the group has suggested.It also wondered aloud if “there is any truth in media speculation that Mr Vögele was denied entry into India due to his friendship with colleagues at Navsarjan Trust, a Dalit rights NGO in Ahmedabad.”In this regard, the letter has noted that: “In the course of his years living here it is but natural that Mr Vögele has made many close friends. In all our democratic country and under our Constitution this can surely be no grounds for deportation. The Trust was denied a renewal of its FCRA licence in December 2016. If this were a reason, it would be a breach of the right to free association and also amount to victimization of the Trust.”The signatories to the letter include among others Aakar Patel of Amnesty International India, Amitabh Behar of National Foundation of India, activist and classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai, and educationist and former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed.
