Frosty US visa policy leaves Indian science cold

© 2006 Nature Publishing Group

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“Tell Larry he betterappreciate my financialsupport.”Harvard student Vikram Viswanathanjoins an online betting pool onwhether embattled universitypresident Larry Summers willannounce his resignation by 30 June.

“Native peoples wereeither living in harmonywith nature or eatingtheir way through avast array of large-sized, attractive preyspecies.”University of Utah archaeologist Jack Broughton questions whetherearly Native Americans were at onewith nature.

Sources: The Harvard Crimson, Reuters

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dramatically reduces brainfunction compared with poppinga pill in peace and quiet,according to a study in rats.

The munchiesA drug that works byblocking a cannabinoid

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23% had asked for and beendenied access to data associatedwith published research.

8% had denied other scientistsaccess to data associated with theirown published research.

51% reported that data secrecyhad hindered their research.

Source: C. Vogeli et al. Acad. Med. 81,137–145 (2006)

NATURE|Vol 439|23 February 2006 NEWS

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NEW DELHIScientific cooperation between India and theUnited States has been dented ahead of USPresident George Bush’s official visit to NewDelhi next month. Bush will find India’s scien-tific community in a bitter mood following theUnited States’ failure to give a visa to a leadingIndian organic chemist on the suspicion thathis work could be related to chemical warfare.

Bush was already preparing to deal with anuclear establishment unwilling to separate itsmilitary and civilian atomic facilities the wayWashington wants, a principle at the centre oflast July’s historic deal for nuclear cooperationbetween the two countries (see Nature 436,446–447; 2005). But the visa issue is creating anew wave of resentment.

Goverdhan Mehta, a former director of theIndian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore,had been invited as a visiting professor to theUniversity of Florida at Gainesville, but says hewas asked to prove that he was not working onchemical weapons before a visa was issued.

Mehta does not seem to have been singledout — the US Embassy in NewDelhi said in a statement that itis “obliged to obtain sufficientinformation necessary for eval-uating each application”. ButIndian scientists attempting to visit the United States onsabbatical or to attend conferences say that theeight-week ‘enquiry’ period is demeaning.

“This is too much,” says Mehta, who is amember of the Indian prime minister’s scienceadvisory panel and president of the Paris-based International Council of Science, which is committed to the free movement ofscientists. “If the United States wants sciencecooperation with India it cannot humiliate our scientists the way I was treated by its consular officials.”

Many Indian researchers have now with-drawn from the process altogether. “As a mat-ter of principle I have stopped going to theUnited States,” says biochemist GovindarajanPadmanaban, another former director of the IISc. “I am on the panel of the Indo–US

vaccine action programme but have decidedonly to attend the panel meetings in India.”

C. N. R. Rao, science adviser to India’s primeminister, says he agrees that visa applicationsneed to be scrutinized, but doesn’t see why itcan’t be done more tactfully. “I have decidednever to attend an interview for a visa,” he says.

India’s science secretary Valangiman Rama-murthi warns that the United States stands tolose out on collaborations. For instance, heclaims that India’s interest in the InternationalLinear Collider project “has come down tenfold because our team could not attend a workshop in the United States due to visa

problems”.Samir Brahmachari, director

of the Institute of Genomicsand Integrative Biology inDelhi, says he was body-searched at an airport in NewYork last year, despite having a

diplomatic passport. “I have suggested that theIISc should cut off all US collaboration,” he says. “As for myself, I have decided not to go to the United States. My institute is lookingto China, Japan and Taiwan for research collaborations.”

Officials at the US Embassy in New Delhi sayit is not US policy to comment on individualvisas. But in a statement released on 18 Febru-ary, they said: “At the United Statesmission in India, certain cases involving high-technology issues require review before con-sular officers are authorized to issue a visa. Thisreview does not in any way dilute the US gov-ernment commitment to building a scienceand technology partnership with India.” ■

K. S. Jayaraman

Frosty US visa policyleaves Indianscience cold

Security risk? Goverdhan Mehta was asked toprove he wasn’t working on chemical weapons.

“If the United Stateswants cooperation it cannot humiliate our scientists.”

ICSU

23.2 News 901 MH 21/2/06 9:42 AM Page 901

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