India seeks facts from mission on Naipaul

Jul 07, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

The overseas Indian affairs ministry has sought information from the Indian high commission in London about the alleged refusal of PIO card to Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul.

Sources in the ministry clarified that a person of Indian origin (PIO) can get a “nativity certificate” thro-ugh the mission concerned and they need not to travel to their place of origin in India for getting the certificate.
This newspaper had quoted Farrukh Dhondy, a writer and a friend of the Naipauls, as saying that the Nobel laureate was asked to get an affidavit from Gorakhpur from where his grandparents came from in order to prove his Indian origin.
The sources also said the ministry would examine what kind of documents the author has before taking a decision on whether to waive off the requirement of essential documents for him, if he applies for the PIO card.
The Indian high commission in London has maintained that the author had not applied for a PIO card. “Lady Naipaul had visited the high commission some three months ago and enquired about procedures regarding the application for a PIO card for her husband, which were explained to her by the concerned officer,” the high commission spokesperson had said.

***

UP govt: Sir Vidia who?
Age Correspondent
Lucknow

July 6: The Mayawati government is apparently not bothered about verifying the claims of Nobel Prize winner V.S. Naipaul who has said that his ancestors belong to Gorakhpur district which remains his “only real address in India”.
“We have not yet received any such official communication from the centre and we do not take up such issues on our own,” said an official spokesperson tersely.
In Gorakhpur, the senior officials said that they had no information about the eminent writer having lived in this part of the state.
“In any case, unless we have the name of his village or that of his grandfather and also his caste, we cannot check the records. Naipaul is an unusual surname in this region. It has obviously been changed beyond recognition from the original one,” an official said.

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