A YouTuber, who hails from New Zealand, has claimed that the Indian government blacklisted him from travelling to India and he cannot meet his wife, who is in India.
Karl Rock, who has over 1.79 million subscribers on Youtube, is married to an Indian woman Manisha Malik.
Rock has launched a petition on Change.org appealing Government of India to remove him from the blacklist.
“My name is Karl Rock, and the Government of India has stopped me from returning to India by adding my name to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ Blacklist. Thereby separating me from my wife and family in New Delhi,” reads the petition launched by Karl Rock.
“If there’s one thing I have learnt from being part of a Haryanvi family in India, it’s how to be brave and how to fight.”
‘They wouldn’t tell me’
Rock says he left India to travel to Dubai and Pakistan in October 2020, and upon leaving, they (India) cancelled his visa “at the airport”.
“They wouldn’t tell me why. So, in Dubai, I applied for a new visa. They called me in for a meeting and told me I had been blacklisted, and therefore they couldn’t issue me a visa to go home,” Rock says.
“Before someone is added to the blacklist, they’re meant to be given the reason and time to reply. I wasn’t.”
Rock has also filed a petition in the Delhi High Court asking for his name to be removed from a ‘blacklist’ so he can re-enter India and unite with his wife.
In a video uploaded to his verified YouTube channel, Rock says he hasn’t seen his wife in almost a year. Published 9 July, the video is titled ‘Why I Haven’t Seen My Wife in 269 Days #Blacklist”.
“Today, we are filing a petition in the high court asking for my name to be removed from the blacklist. In the Delhi High Court,” he said in the video.
Rock says Delhi is his home in India. According to Rock, his father-in-law’s home is in Hansi, Haryana, and his mother-in-law’s village is in Rajasthan’s Churu district. The couple met in Delhi in October 2014 and got married in April 2019.
‘Multiple visa violations ‘
Indian new website theprint.in quoted saying a source in the Ministry of Home Affairs that Karl Rock was blacklisted for multiple visa violations on his last visit.
The Print quoted the sources saying, “He (Karl Rock) was blacklisted for multiple visa violations on his last visit. He had indulged in economic activities without informing the FRRO (Foreigners Regional Registration Office). He did not submit his income tax returns and had also attempted entry into restricted areas. All this is not allowed while on a tourist visa.”
Karl Rock is now in New Zealand.
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju says that the Indian Government action cannot be faulted.
“However much one may feel sorry for him because he has been unable to meet his wife for one year, the External Affairs Ministry action cannot be faulted. He broke the law. If one comes on a tourist visa one cannot do business. To do business in India one must obtain a business visa. Grant of visa is a government’s discretion, not a right ( unlike a passport which is one’s right, as held by the Indian Supreme Court ),” retired Justice Katju said in a Facebook post.
NRI Affairs News Desk
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