Heehs visa hangs fire

NEW DELHI/PUDUCHERRY: The visa extension of American historian Peter Heehs, who has been living in India for the last 41 years, hangs fire as the Central government is yet to take a decision on the issue.Home Minister P Chidambaram, who has to decide on the issue, is on a visit to Aizwal and then to Chennai. He will be back in Delhi only on Sunday afternoon. Sources said that the decision on the matter will not be taken before Monday. Heehs’s visa expires on April 15.Heehs was asked to leave the country by the Regional Registration Office in Puducherry as his visa was not extended. An inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Heehs had spent over four decades in India  working on a project involving the digitisation of works of freedom fighter and spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo. The delay comes despite the Home Minister saying on March 31 that he would take a decision on April 2 when the file would be submitted to him. As per sources, the brief given to Chidambaram has been against extending the visa.The plan to deny visa has triggered a furore. Many historians, including Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Romila Thapar and London School of Economics’ Ramchandra Guha have criticised the government’s move. They had also petitioned the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in this regard. Heehs had written a controversial biography ‘The Lives of Sri Aurobindo’ in 2008. Some of the inmates of Aurobindo Ashram had protested against biography published in the US and moved the Court saying Heehs had made “denigrating and unacceptable remarks” about Sri Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa-known as the Mother.Even as debate on the issue continues in the media, Heehs hopes that the Government will listen to his appeal and let him stay in the country where he has spent 41 years of his life. “Please give me a benefit of doubt,” he told Express referring to the controversial portions of the book. On the other hand, he refutes all allegations against him. “There is no anomaly in the visa or my stay. I have been here for 41 years and have never hurt anyone,” said Heehs. “The local Foreigners Regional Registration Office which is dealing with me has never been dissatisfied with me and I have complied with all their directions.” Heehs claimed that he was ready for a revised Indian version of the book, when the controversy broke out in 2008. However, he has not been able to do it as a case against Publication of the book is pending in the Orissa HC.