Over 70 years after its Raj ended, Britain continues to loot Indians

Ranjan and Mala (names changed), a couple in their silver years, applied for British visitor visas in Kolkata where they live.
They asked for a five-year multiple entry visa and paid a fee of Rs. 59,000 for it. To their unpleasant surprise, their passports were stamped for only a much less expensive two-year visa, which cost Rs. 32,000. There was no refund for the extra money they had paid to get a five-year visa.

Their case is not an exception. Many Indians who apply for a British visitor visa are similarly shortchanged.

The guidelines on the visa forms do say that applicants can apply for a long-term visa but there is no guarantee that it will be granted.
A shorter visa might be given, or no visa at all. And no refund of the full money pre-paid will be made in such cases.

This is a blatant case of daylight robbery in full public view.

During one of his trips abroad, Prime Minister Modi, addressing an audience of NRIs, said an Indian passport today empowered its holder more than it had ever before, implying that India enjoyed more international clout than it previously had.

The PM should exercise some of that putative clout and get the external affairs ministry to take Britain to task for the outright thievery it is perpetrating on Indian citizens who apply for UK visitors’ visas.

Post-Brexit Britain is hoping for closer trade and economic ties with Commonwealth countries, including India.

Trade, by definition, is a two-way street, and implies a mutuality of interest and equality between the parties concerned.

Britain’s patently unjust treatment of Indians who apply for UK visas is anything but equitable.

It is just the return of the rapacious Raj in another avatar.
And it needs to be put a stop to, by adopting whatever counter measures are deemed to be necessary.

Yes, Prime Minister?