Tanvi Seth alleged that she and her husband Anan Siddiqui were denied passports because of their inter-faith marriage as the passport officer abused them and asked her husband to change his religion to get one.
Yet another controversy related to inter-faith relationships broke out last week on Wednesday when a woman named Tanvi Seth alleged that she had been humiliated and demeaned by a passport officer in Lucknow. She claimed that the officer, Vikas Mishra questioned her marriage and asked her husband, Anas Siddiqui to convert to Hinduism and take pheras to get a passport. She continued by saying that her and her husband’s passports had been put on hold.
Tanvi tweeted this incident to Sushma Swaraj and the RPO Lucknow about this incident and got a reply from the RPO Lucknow. The APO confirmed to the media that a show cause notice has been issued and appropriate action would be taken.
We assure proper investigation and appropriate action. We will contact you tomorrow positively.
— RPO Lucknow (@rpolucknow) June 20, 2018
This story was immediately pursued by all the media houses and the story was sold like hot cakes. But later, Vikas Mishra’s side of the story along with an account of an eyewitness to the incident was discovered. Mishra alleged that according to the nikahnama, Tanvi’s name was Shadia Anas and that he was just questioning the discrepancy of her two names in two different documents. He justified his action by saying that he was just going through the normal procedure of verification of details.
Asked Tanvi Seth to get the name'Shadia Anas'endorsed as it was mentioned on her Nikahnama,but she refused.We have to do thorough checks to ensure no person is changing their name to obtain a passport:Vikas Mishra,officer who allegedly harassed Tanvi Seth at Lucknow passport Off. pic.twitter.com/biQkBcghrJ
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 21, 2018
The eyewitness, Kuldeep Singh has also falsified all of Tanvi’s claims.
In the meantime, the couple got their passports on the very next day in Lucknow and the officer was transferred to the Gorakhpur passport office.
As promised, Regional Passport Officer met Mrs Tanvi and Mr Anas and redressed the concern today. Passports have been delivered. @CPVIndia pic.twitter.com/a9xHrsmqQr
— RPO Lucknow (@rpolucknow) June 21, 2018
This incident has faced a lot of backlash on social media where people questioned the legality of the issued passport and the transfer. People asked how the passport had been issued hastily and the officer transferred without any inquiry.
There have been some reports which state that Tanvi’s residence is in Noida and the residents of Noida are supposed to acquire their passports from the Ghaziabad office. The MEA has now set up an inquiry on the issuance of the passport and will receive reply in a few days.
Shiv Sena has also come out in support of Vikas Mishra and handed a memorandum to the governor of UP seeking to postpone the transfer of the officer.
A delegation of Shiv Sena led by Anil Singh met UP guv Ram Naik over passports issued to an inter-faith couple in #Lucknow; said, 'govt was trying to appease Muslims. It's a matter of national security. We'll honour officer Vikas Mishra who tried to stop this but was transferred' pic.twitter.com/vfq7ieNc9G
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 23, 2018
This incident is another example which shows how media is quick to jump into conclusion to communally sensitive cases. Likewise, even the government officials were quick to bend under the pressure of the media without conducting a proper inquiry into this incident.
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