Vineet Khare: Chinese man prevented from visiting Indian family
In 1963, a former
Chinese army surveyor crossed into India and was captured weeks after a war
between the two countries. Wang Qi was then left in a central Indian town for
more than five decades before he was allowed to travel back home to China in
2017. The BBC reported his
story at the time and videos of the emotional family reunion in China were
watched by millions.
But now, more than 30
months later, his story has taken an unexpected turn - Mr Wang is stuck in China
and unable to return to India. He has been waiting
for more than four months for officials to renew his Indian visa so that he can
travel back to India where his children and grandchildren live.
"Why are they
doing this? I've been fighting for such a long time. How much longer can I
fight?" Mr Wang told me over the phone from his home city of Xianyang. The BBC has emailed
the Indian embassy in Beijing and is yet to receive a response.
Born to a farmer
family in Shaanxi with four brothers and two sisters, he studied surveying and
joined China's People's Liberation Army in 1960. Mr Wang says he was
"tasked with building roads for the Chinese army" and was captured
when he "strayed erroneously" into Indian territory in January 1963. "I had gone out
of my camp for a stroll but lost my way. I was tired and hungry. I saw a Red
Cross vehicle and asked them to help me. They handed me over to the Indian
army," he said.
After he was captured,
he spent the next seven years in multiple prisons before he was released by a
court order in 1969. Police took him to
Tirodi, a far-flung village in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, where he
ended up living for most of his life. Instead he worked at a
flour mill, eventually marrying a local woman and raising a family with her.
Neighbours said they lived in "utter poverty".
It was never clear
whether Mr Wang was actually a prisoner of war. But he was denied official
Indian documents or citizenship, and he was also denied permission to return to
China. Officials told the BBC in 2017 that there were "deficiencies"
and a "lack of interest" in the case over the years.
A Chinese passport
holder, Mr Wang was reunited with his family in China in 2017. After the BBC
reported his story, he received a one-year multiple entry Indian visa. He kept coming back to
India to meet his wife, children and grandchildren who continued to live here. When Mr Wang first
arrived in China, he received a rapturous welcome. Crowds met him with banners
reading, "Welcome home, soldier, it's been a rough journey". But according to Mr
Wang's son, Vishnu, his father's request to local officials to clear his salary
for the period of his stay in India, remains unanswered.
Vishnu also adds that
its unclear if his father still has any claim to ancestral property in China
after being away for so many years. "He was ecstatic
to have met his family after decades. He didn't want anything else." In 2017, Mr Wang
rushed back to India to take care of his wife, who was hospitalised due to
"liver complications". "Getting funds
for the expensive treatment was very difficult. We tried everywhere, begged for
money but didn't receive any response," Vishnu says. She died within a
fortnight. "My father's visa
was renewed in 2018. He applied again in April 2019 but he is still
waiting," Vishnu adds.
Xianyang and Beijing,
where the Indian embassy is located, are more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles)
apart - and travelling between the two cities isn't easy for Mr Wang, who is
nearly 80 years old, Vishnu says. "My father is fed
up. He doesn't understand why this is taking so long."
