Congress cautious on Labour MP Abrahams’ visa denial

New Delhi: The Congress has been cautious on the issue of the deportation of British Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, who was denied entry into India and was sent back from New Delhi airport. Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said that “the government should come out with facts on what happened”.

Another Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi has backed her deportation.

“The deportation of Debbie Abrahams by India was indeed necessary, as she is not just an MP, but a Pak proxy known for her clasp with Pak government and ISI. Every attempt that tries to attack India’s sovereignty must be thwarted.” tweeted Singhvi.

Debbie Abrahams, who chairs a UK parliamentary group on Kashmir, said she arrived at Delhi airport at about 8.50 a.m. on Monday, and claimed that her visa was valid till October 2020 and she was visiting her Indian relatives. She was accompanied by her Indian members of staff.

Narrating her side of the story, she said the immigration official in New Delhi “looked at his screen and started shaking his head. Then he told me my visa was rejected. he took my passport and disappeared for about 10 minutes. When he came back he was very rude and aggressive as he shouted ‘come with me’.”

“I told him not to speak to me like that & was then taken to a cordoned off area marked as a Deportee Cell. He then ordered me to sit down & I refused. I didn’t know what they might do or where else they may take me, so I wanted people to see me. He disappeared again when I rang my sister-in-law’s cousin, Kai, who I was meant to be staying with. Kai got in touch with the British High Commission & he tried to find out what was going on,” the British MP said in her statement.

“After lots of different immigration officials came to me, I tried to establish why the visa had been revoked and if I could get a ‘visa on arrival’ but no one seemed to know. Even the person who seemed to be in-charge said he didn’t know & was really sorry about what had happened,” Abrahams said.

IANS