Anti-India Post Will Cancel Visa! Social Media Screening Started

The Indian government has decided to introduce a new and stricter verification process for issuing visas to Bangladeshi citizens. According to this decision, the social media activities of the applicants will be scrutinized before applying for a visa. This system, which is basically modeled after the US visa policy, will monitor the social media presence, posts, comments and online activities of the applicants for at least the last five years. However, this rule will be applicable to applicants between the ages of 18 and 60; the Indian government has announced that it will make exemptions in this regard for minors and senior citizens.

A top official of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that this decision has been taken keeping in mind the issue of national security and protecting the interests of the country. India considers it reasonable to deny visas to those who are involved in public anti-India comments, posts or campaigns. While such verification was earlier done only in limited numbers in some specific or suspicious cases, from now on it will be implemented as part of a regular and structured process for issuing visas.

Indian officials also said that the general visa program is being expanded in a phased manner through five Indian Visa Application Centers located in Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Chittagong. The social media verification process was already partially implemented, especially for medical, educational and emergency visas. As a result of the new decision, this verification system will be applied more widely for all types of general visas.

A former Indian ambassador posted in Dhaka sees this initiative as positive. According to him, social media is an effective and practical means to identify those who are regularly involved in anti-India statements, criticism or propaganda even while staying in Bangladesh. This will increase transparency in visa management and reduce security risks.

Indian officials said that this verification system is not being implemented all at once, but in a phased manner. For this, the work of increasing the necessary technical capacity and hiring additional manpower is also underway. Although no official government announcement has been made on the matter yet, it is expected in the concerned quarters that this policy will be fully implemented in the near future.