Why India isn't going to grant Edward Snowden asylum

Facing trial for revealing details of the NSA surveillance programme, Edward Snowden may have sought asylum in India but he needn’t be too hopeful given that Indian authorities have already said it was unlikely he would be granted it. The reason for the rejection however, isn’t based on the ethics of snooping and spying but on the fact that Snowden doesn’t have valid travel documents. Ironically enough, Hong Kong made a similar technical claim when it made the decision not to extradite Snowden, saying that the US had got his middle name wrong in some of the extradition documents. WikiLeaks has said that Snowden is seeking asylum in 19 countries, including China and India, after not being able to travel to Ecuador. He is presently in the transit lounge of a Russian airport. CNN-IBN quoted unnamed sources as saying that no formal request had been received from the former NSA contractor for asylum in India. [caption id=“attachment_921371” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Snowden has sought asylum in India. AP[/caption] However, India has already said that it was unlikely to consider Snowden’s request, even if he did make one formally, since he didn’t have valid travel documents to make the journey from Russia to India. The US has already revoked Snowden’s passport and has said that they would be willing to grant him travel documents if he was willing to come to the US to face trial. Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid said that he had no knowledge of Snowden seeking asylum in India. “I have no knowledge that he has. I wouldn’t want to comment on something that is maybe just hearsay,” Khurshid said. Stating that India had a “very careful” and “restrictive” policy on granting asylum, Khurshid said,“We have given asylums in the past but we’re not an open house for asylums.” India has largely remained silent over allegations that the NSA had spied on various embassies including its embassy in Washington. Khurshid had earlier said that they have discussed the matter with the US Secretary of State and there was no need to escalate the matter further.