By Abdul Bari Masoud, MuslimMirror.com,
New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday defended its decision of issuing passport to Tanvi Seth who had accused Lucknow passport officer Vikas Mishra of harassing her on the ground of her marriage to a Muslim. The MEA categorically stated that it has followed all existing norms during the issue of passport to Tanvi Seth and there was no adverse report in her revised application form that required information on 6 points.
Trying to keep record straight on the issue of Tanvi’s passport, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in the last couple of weeks, a lot of misinformation has been going around in the matter related to the issue of passport to her. He said the police officer who conducted the verification added two comments on his “own” owing to which the verification report was placed in “adverse” category.
He explained the case step by step in a ‘factual manner’ saying there is a need to separate facts from fiction:
“• Ms. Tanvi Seth submitted her passport application at PSK Lucknow on 20 June
• Passport was issued to Ms. Seth after careful examination of the documents submitted and following due process as per the Passport Act.
• Since the passport was issued on a post-PV basis, police verification was carried out. The PV report sent to RPO Lucknow was to be based on a decision taken in December 2017 that PV will be undertaken only on two points – whether the applicant is a citizen of India and whether the applicant has any criminal case pending against him or her. These two aspects were converted into a six-point PV form. This decision was communicated to the DGPs of all states and UTs to implement the PV norms from 1 June 2018.
In the Tanvi Seth case, there was no adverse report on all six points mentioned in the revised form. The police officer doing the verification added two comments on his own based on which the PV report was put under the adverse category.
• The first point says that the name of the applicant in the passport form is Tanvi Seth while in her marriage certificate her name is Sadia Anas, and the second was a discrepancy in her address on the ground that her rental address in NOIDA is not mentioned in the PP form by the applicant.”
On the marriage certificate, the spokesperson said under the revised passport application rules, there is no requirement for submission of a marriage certificate at the time of application of passport. Therefore, the name in the marriage certificate is not relevant to the issue of passport.
On the address – Tanvi Seth had submitted her Adhaar Card and a joint bank account as a proof for her name and address which was the same as mentioned in the application form and therefore, the issue of passport to Tanvi Seth was found in order based on the existing rules, he added.
I would like to categorically state that all existing norms were followed during the issue of passport to Ms. Tanvi Seth and hope this clarifies the matter and puts to rest all misinformation in this regard, the spokesperson said.
The Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj was “trolled and abused” by the Hindutva brigade on Twitter for issuing the passport to the inter-faith couple. They described her decision as “appeasement of minority.” She was defended by her some cabinet colleagues. However, it is puzzling that her did not come forward for her rescue.
However, an internal inquiry has vindicated the minister’s stand in the case as it found that the accused officer asked irrelevant questions to the couple. The inquiry has also found that the passport officer Vikas Mishra and the police have exceeded their brief in the case.