US denies journo visa allegedly due to his stories on mistreatment of Muslims in India

New Delhi: The US denied a student visa to a 27-year-old Delhi-based journalist who was awarded a Rs 89 lakh scholarship to do a Master’s in Data Journalism at Columbia University. According to the journalist, Kaushik Raj, he believes that his visa application could have been denied because of his social media posts on hate crimes and the treatment of Muslims in India.

He justifies his conclusion, saying that he had completed all the formalities, including the interview, but it was after he submitted his social media handles that his application got rejected. The rejection letter stated that insufficient ties to India.

Submission of social media platform handles is a Trump-era policy that is still active.

According to him, he wasn’t very active on social media and never expressed opinions on global issues like Gaza, but he had shared his reporting and stories on hate crimes and the mistreatment of Muslims in India.

Kaushik Raj points out that if US authorities were not satisfied with his application, they could have refused during the interview. Instead, they choose to reject his application after taking his social media details.

Meanwhile, a report by The Washington Post stated that at least three other Indian students were denied visas in recent months. All of them had fulfilled all formal criteria, too. Denying their visas, all of them were informed that they lacked sufficient ties to India, the standard justification under Section 214(b) of the US Immigration and Nationality Act.