The hurdles faced by those wanting to visit holy sites in India
By Rabia Ali

When Sardar Ramesh Singh enters the awe-inspiring Golden Temple in Amristar, one of the prayers on his lips is for India and Pakistan to be a visa-free zone for each other. “Throughout my stay at the holy shrine, I pray for Pakistan and India to be a visa-free zone so that people from both countries can visit one another without any barriers, restrictions or difficulties,” says Singh, who recently headed a group of around 167 Pakistani Sikh and Hindu yatrees (pilgrims) visiting religious sites in India. One of their aims was to commemorate the birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of Sikhism.

Though Singh feels he is extremely fortunate to be able to visit the divine places every year because of his role in helping to acquire visas for pilgrims, he is very aware of the restrictions imposed on ordinary visa applicants, making the process of traveling across the border cumbersome and difficult.

The visa form is available only on the Indian High Commissioner website which creates many problems for those who are illiterate and do not have access to the internet.

“Most people in our community do not own computers. So our applicants have to pay agents to fill out the forms online. Then there is the issue of the limited time period for which we are allowed to stay in India as we do not get visa for more than a month. After spending so much money on travel and so forth, we would want to spend time with our people there, explore and visit new places,” said Singh, adding sadly, “but that does not happen due to the shortage of time.”

“It’s not just the Hindu community, other communities also have relatives living in India. Due to the visa regime, families on both sides are divided, even married couples are sometimes separated because of the visa constraints,” says Ramesh Kumar, Patron, Pakistan Hindu Council.

“Since both countries share the same culture, language, history and traditions why not remove the restrictions and let them meet one another. Why are there so many hurdles when there are so many similarities between us? Both governments should abolish the visa system and let people come close to one another.”