Passport to Trouble

An interfaith couple’s tiff with a passport officer in Lucknow has snowballed into a political slugfest, subjecting even the foreign minister to vicious trolling.

- Ajay Uprety​​​​​​​

WHEN UTTAR PRADESH Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wanted to change the address on his passport, he had to go to the regional passport office in Lucknow, and complete all formalities. His updated passport was sent by registered post to his official residence. For Ram Kumar Shukla, former MLA from the Lucknow West constituency, it took about a month to get a passport. Tanvi Seth, from Lucknow, who works in a multinational company in Noida, however, got her passport in an hour. It was not even sent by post as is the norm but was handed over to her personally by passport officials. It has, however, snowballed into a major political controversy.

Tanvi and her husband, Mohammed Anas Siddiqui, applied for their passports on June 19 at the regional passport office in Lucknow. They were summoned to the office the following day. Senior superintendent Vikas Mishra, who reportedly spotted several discrepancies in the information Tanvi had furnished, asked her to rectify those. Tanvi said Mishra made derogatory remarks about her religion and her interfaith marriage. She had married Anas in 2007, after converting to Islam.

“Mishra raised objections about my name in my wife’s application, of me being a Muslim,” said Anas. “He asked Tanvi to change her name. When she refused, I was asked to change my religion and marry her according to Hindu rituals. He said only then would the passport be issued.” Mishra then sent the application to his superior, assistant passport officer Vijay Dwivedi.