No visa to Nepali author, US feels sorry

Kathmandu: America's ambassador to Nepal expressed regret on Thursday after a public outrage triggered by the denial of visa to a leading Nepali author who was also a "cultural contact" for the American Center.

Abhi Subedi, one of Nepal's top playwrights and essayists and a professor at Tribhuvan University, Nepal's best known varsity, was turned down by the American consular section in Kathmandu last month when he applied for a week's visa to attend a writers' programme in New York.

Subedi's rejection was made public last week after he published an article in the Kathmandu Post.

Titled "Visa and empire of indifference", the article mentioned how the visa officer interviewing him had wondered at his visits to several foreign countries.

"You seem to have visited so many places," she reportedly told him. "How come? Are you retired? Will you return?"

Then she turned down his application with the advice: "Try again."

Subedi's article triggered several angry letters from readers, denouncing the US "discrimination". They included an anonymous letter from southern Nepal, which said its author was refused a visa to attend his son's graduation ceremony in the US though he was a professor.

"I wonder what the Americans think (of) themselves," the letter said. "Why should a person like me with fine status in his own country stay in a third country, for ever deserting his relatives and friends, jobs and what not!"

Stung by the letters, US Ambassador to Nepal James Francis Moriarty wrote to the Post, defending his embassy's consular services.

Published as an article in the Post Thursday, it said the staff "day in and day out perform a first-rate job".

The US envoy also said that in April, when the US consular section closed due to security concerns as anti-king protests erupted on the streets, two officers were sent to the US embassy in New Delhi for several weeks to help Nepali applicants, who needed visa urgently, though "there was no requirement that we do so".

However, Moriarty, who is also under criticism for his anti-Maoist statements, admitted that "mistakes can occasionally happen" since the staff, "like most of us, are not perfect".

"This appears to have been the case in the application by Prof Subedi, long a cultural contact of our American Center," the envoy added. "And we regret it."