Calibrated move by India to issue visa to Uyghur dissident: Uday Bhaskar

The defence expert said there is more to the government's decision to grant a visa to Uyghur dissident Dolkun Isa than just a simple tit-for-tat

Defence expert Uday Bhaskar on Saturday said that the Indian Government decision to grant a visa to Uyghur dissident Dolkun Isa was a calibrated deal with the China-Pakistan alliance on terror related issues.

"The fact that India has issued an electronic visa to Mr. Dolkun Isa who is a Uyghur leader, is a fairly important development as far the bilateral relationship with China is concerned" Bhaskar said. 

"It is being interpreted that it is 'tit for tat', that because China has exercised what is called a technical veto in relation to the Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar, the inference that India is paying back in the same coin and providing the same kind of facilitation for Mr. Isa to visit India .But I think there is little more to it because if you see the statement carefully, the Ministry of External Affairs spokes man has said that they are still studying the matter, meaning, that for this particular conference for which Mr. Isa is supposed to be in India, by the way, we must know he is a German citizen not a Chinese citizen, that the conference that he is attending, is about inter-religious faith and harmony , it would also have the Dalai Lama which is another sensitive point as far as Beijing is concerned," he added.

"Mr. Isa has constantly emphasized the fact that whatever he is doing on his own people is a non violent struggle, meaning that he wants to distance himself from the tag of terrorism that China has accorded to him So, I see this as a calibrated move by India," Bhaskar said.

"It has not happened in a vacuum and, we also need to know that India has also provided access to visit India to Baloch leader Mrs Naila Qadri Baloch, who is also someone that Pakistan definitely is aware of. So, these responses by India is seen holistically, would suggest a calibrated response in dealing with the China-Pakistan alliance in relation to terror activities directed against India," he added.

China's unhappiness about reports that Dolkun Isa has been given a visa, was reflected in Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying saying, "What I want to point out is that Dolkun is a terrorist in red notice of the Interpol and Chinese police. Bringing him to justice is the due obligation of relevant countries."

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last week raised the issue of China blocking India's bid to have Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Russia-India- China (RIC) trilateral meeting of their foreign ministers.