Krishna not so sweet with Tharoor tweet

Krishna advised Tharoor, albeit without referring to him directly, that he should have aired his “perceptions” on the new visa rules within the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) itself instead of going public.

“These (issues) are not to be discussed in public. If there are any perceptions, then I think it should be sorted out within the four walls of the Ministry,” Krishna told journalists, after her was asked to react to Tharoor’s recent tweets about tightening the visa regime.

Tharoor in one of his recent messages on ‘Twitter’ questioned if tightening the visa regime would actually enhance the security of the nation.

He reminded that the terrorists who had carried out the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai had no visa, but yet they had been able to sneak into the western metropolis and carried out the carnage.

The new guidelines on multi-entry tourist visas were issued on November 4 last, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) informed their counterparts in New Delhi that the arrested Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operative David Coleman Headley used a multi-entry visa to make nine trips to India between September 2006 and March 2009.

Tharoor tweeted on December 24 last: “My only role is to object to them (new visa rules). The MEA officials are discussing them with MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs), which imposed them.”

Krishna, however, said on Monday that MEA and MHA had no differences on the issue of tightening the visa rules.

“We have gone along with the MHA with reference to the visa and other issues, As far as the MEA is concerned, there is no ambiguity,” he clarified.