On the issue of foreigners who are positive not being allowed into India

[Guest guest]

[Moerators reply follows the main text of the message]

Dear Forum Members,

I am a bit disturbed on seeing the kind of debate being generated

over the issue of Foreigners who are positive not being allowed into India. As

a member of the National Aids Committee, a non official member of the

NACO board and an active member of various national and state committees on

policy and legislation, I wish to state that there is no truth in

this at all, I have also personally spoken to Mr. Prasada Rao (PD NACO) (Mr.

Prasarda Rao has also agreed to post his opinion on the same soon) on

this issue. We must understand that personal opinions of people including

Ministers (who are also some times misquoted) are not policy or

legislations. Policies on any issue in India is not the prerogative

of any individual person even the Chief Executive of the Government of India.

The Moderator of this forum needs to ascertain the legitimacy of the

source of information received before posting the same. This will avoid an

unnecessary magnification of a non-existing issue.

Ashok Rau

Executive Trustee/Director

The Freedom Foundation-India

Bangalore, Bellary, Mangalore, Udipi, and Hyderabad

E-mail: freedom@...

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[The moderator do share the concerns of Mr. Ashok Rau on seeing the kind of

debate being generated over the issue of Foreigners who are positive not being

allowed into India. However, the news item was originaly published by many

reputed International news papers. For instance, the Hong Kong based South

China Morning Post(SCMP) published this news. If the minister was misquoted, the

best option was to send a clarification to the news papers and the media persons

who reported this news. It is impossible for the Moderator of this forum to

ascertain the legitimacy or the source of information of reputed news papers

such as SCMP and various other news agencies. Moderator]

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[Guest guest]

The news on policy likely to ban entry to foreigners with HIV was carried in

several newspapers, including The Statesman, on March 10. It was an agency

report, namely The Press Trust of India (PTI) and, like the South China

Morning Post, quoted the health minister. Attempts were made by me after

that to contact the minister to get the correct version and the reasons. But

I couldn't get through. NACO PD Prasada Rao was also not in India to confirm

or refute the story. The OSD in the ministry, who is close to Dr Thakur,

however, did say that some policy on these lines was in the offing.

Could the ministry or NACO clarify the position once and for all? For if a

ban of this nature is introduced, it will have several spin-offs and

ramifications.

Amit Ukil

The Telegraph,

Calcutta

e-mail <Amitrajit@...>

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