As three Delhi-based foreign journalists, who were on their way to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and had reached Guwahati on Thursday, were reportedly prevented from visiting the north-eastern state and cover the Dalai Lama’s visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said “nobody has been denied permit” and applications from foreign journalists were “under process”.

The development has sparked off a strong reaction from the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia, whose president Heather Timmons issued a terse statement on behalf of the executive board. “Despite numerous requests over the past few weeks, India’s Central government has not granted a single foreign journalist a permit to travel to the state of Arunachal Pradesh during the Dalai Lama’s visit,” said Timmons, a journalist with The New York Times. “Today we were surprised and disappointed to learn that permits issued by the state government to travel to Arunachal Pradesh during the visit were cancelled by the Central government.”

At least four foreign journalists had got the 30-day special permit, a requirement for foreign correspondents to visit Arunachal Pradesh, from the state government’s Resident Commissioner in New Delhi. Two of them were from the Associated Press and others were from American and British publications.

On Thursday morning, these foreign journalists took a flight from Delhi to Guwahati, and were waiting for a helicopter to reach Tawang when they were told that the Arunachal Pradesh government had revoked the permits.

MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash, when contacted, told The Indian Express, “No foreign journalist has been denied permission to visit Arunachal Pradesh. There is a certain procedure for granting permits to foreign nationals, including foreign journalists, who want to visit Arunachal Pradesh. They have to apply to MEA, which is the nodal ministry, and MEA processes the application in consultation with the agencies concerned. The applications are under process.”

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