Tharoor tweets doubts on new visa norms

NEW DELHI: In a statement that could be seen as undermining his own government's actions, minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor has questioned the tightening of visa regulations in the backdrop of the David Headley case and asked whether India would allow terrorists to make it a "less welcoming" destination.

Tharoor, who has set off major controversies in the past by his tweets over the government's austerity drive and some other issues, in his latest post on the social networking site Twitter said, "Is all that worth it just in hope of making it difficult for a future Headley to recce? R we going 2 allow terrorists 2 make us less welcoming?" He added, "26/11 killers had no visas."

The home ministry has tightened visa regulations in the wake of multi-entry visas given to Pakistani-American David Headley and Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, both arrested in the US for plotting terror attacks against India and Denmark. The new visa regime has prompted criticism from the United States and Britain.