Government drops travel ban on Sikhs

The blacklist, which was prepared at different levels by security agencies, has been maintained by the government on mostly Indian-origin people allegedly involved in subversive or anti-India activities abroad. 

Such people, whose names figure in the blacklist, are barred from visiting India. Some names have been removed from the blacklist after detailed discussions among various stakeholders, a Home Ministry official said. 

The blacklist has been pruned, reportedly following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention after Akali Dal supremo and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote a letter urging him to remove names of 36 Sikhs settled overseas from the travel ban. 

Though the exact number of people whose names were removed from the blacklist is not known, officials said it was quite a sizeable number. The move bears significance as Assembly elections in Punjab are due early next year. BJP is part of the Badal government while Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is the Akali Dal representative in the Modi Cabinet. 

The Punjab CM had urged Modi after he became Prime Minister in 2014 to direct the Home Ministry to evolve a mechanism for a regular review of all such cases. Badal had said he wanted removal of the names of persons from the list against whom no cases or legal proceedings were pending.