The visas of six members of the junior Indian cycling team who were to travel to Switzerland for the World Junior Track Cycling Championships 2018 next month have been rejected because their purpose of stay was not clear to the Swiss embassy.
The Indian contingent headed for the championships, scheduled to be held in Aigle from August 15-19, was supposed to have 12 members. Six members of this contingent, including three men, two women and head coach RK Sharma are training in Germany.
The other six – cyclists Bilal Ahmad Dar, Gurpreet Singh, Naman Kapil, Venkappa Shivappa, and coaches Amar Singh and Manoj Sahu – were denied their visas for the event on “flimsy grounds”, according to Cycling Federation of India’s joint-secretary VN Singh.
“We were asked to collect our passports via a message that we received on Friday,” said Singh. “Today, when we went to do the same, we found out that our visas had been rejected.”
He added, “We have submitted all our documents and attached the invitation letter from the organising committee, which clearly states our purpose of going to Switzerland to compete in these prestigious championships. Yet, we received feedback on our visa applications that the purpose of stay is not clear.”
The Swiss embassy rejected the visas because the “justification for purpose and conditions for intended stay wasn’t provided”, the “info submitted regarding the same wasn’t reliable”, and the “intention to leave territory of [European Union] Member States before visa expiry couldn’t be ascertained”.
The Cycling Federation of India has already notified the world governing body of the sport, UCI, about this matter and plans to write to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as well. The Indian federation is now hoping that the Sports Ministry will take the matter up with the Ministry of External Affairs, said Singh.