India may let in people from Gilgit-Baltistan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 2

The upcoming 14th edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) will be held in Bengaluru from January 7 to 9 this year. In a briefing held today to talk about the PBD event, the Ministry of External Affairs indicated that if people from the Gilgit-Baltistan region applied to attend the event, India would allow them in. 

In the past too, people from this region have attended the PBD events. But India’s nod to them is likely to cause a further strain in the already tense India-Pak relationship. 

“PBD is an open event and people from Indian territory, including PIOs and NRIs, can seek online registration,” said Dnyaneshwar M Mulay, Secretary (Overseas Indian Affairs) at the briefing. When asked whether people from PoK have applied for registration, he said there was no such information.

The idea behind this is to give a push to the government’s policy that Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself raised the issue of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK in his independence speech from the Red Fort and at an all-party meet. 

Both Modi and President Pranab Mukherjee will head to Bangalore to attend the PBD. The event will formally be inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on January 8 and the valedictory session on January 9 will be addressed by President Mukherjee who will also confer Pravasi Bharatiya Samman to eminent overseas Indians.