Rs. 2.7 lakh bond to visit UK: Is UK discriminating against Indians?

The second discussion revolves around whether UK's new visa policy represent a new 'racist' divide against non-white Commonwealth countries, or is it a fallout of Britain's internal politics and represents a larger difference of immigration policies with the rest of the European Union? Journalist Padma Rao questions the criteria to determine 'high risk' applicants, and how the UK will determine the 'best & the brightest'. Lord Meghnad Desai says that this policy was intended as a shield against illegal immigration since the largest number of illegal immigrants come from South Asia. He opines that India should offer reciprocal concessions. Journalist Pramit Pal Chaudhuri believes that UK's visa policy is not colour coded. He says it is up to individual countries to determine their visa policy, and that visa officers are provided with a profile of what constitutes 'high risk'. According to him, we in India are in no position to complain. Columnist Minhaz Merchant believes that the move was entirely political, coming as it does ahead of the 2015 elections. According to Merchant, Cameron is extremely worried, and this is an attempt to get anti-immigration kind of policy going. Merchant believes that it is a selfish move by Mr Cameron.