An Indian student, Ananth SM from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, who was offered a fully-funded PhD position by the University of Melbourne, has been denied a visa by Australian government.
The reason provided is that he could be involved in the ‘proliferation of weapons of mass destruction’.
Ananth SM works as an aerospace engineer and graduated from India’s prestigious engineering institute, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur.
He was awarded a scholarship and applied for the visa in August 2015. However, after waiting for 10 months, with no outcome in sight, he wrote to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who wrote on his behalf to Australian High Commissioner in India.
In a letter sent to India’s Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, Tharoor points out that ‘when I took up the case and wrote to the Australian High Commissioner in India, the student was sent a letter that ‘cast suspicion on his motives’ and implied he could be involved in the ‘proliferation of weapons of mass destruction’.’
“I asked the High Commissioner privately over email (correspondence appended) how an Indian scholar could be subjected to such a bizarre suspicion, and stated that such a position is unacceptable since it clubs Indian nationals working in certain sectors with those of rogue nuclear states like North Korea and Pakistan,” Tharoor wrote in his letter to Swaraj.
Tharoor has urged the Indian minister to talk to her Australian counterpart as it ‘entails serious implications for our bilateral relations with the Commonwealth of Australia.’
This week, Ananth's visa for formally rejected.
"I'm really upset, I have worked hard to secure this offer," Mr Ananth told Fairfax on Wednesday.
He said he was sure the rejection would have disastrous consequences for his career as it would "follow me wherever I go". "My career is going to end before it gets started," he said.
Sushma Swaraj has not yet responded to Tharoor's tweets.
