A message claiming that the Indian government has removed the column for nationality in Indian passports is going viral on social media.
The allegation in Hindi in the form of a WhatsApp message attributed to one lawyer of Syed Etemad Uddin, translates into: “Legal update: Modi’s government has removed the” Nationality “column from Indian passports, so make sure you do not destroy or lose your old passports. “
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation false. The Foreign Ministry official spokesman confirmed to Indian Today that the nationality column is maintained in all travel documents, including the passport, issued by the Indian government.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA investigation
Any move by the Central Government to remove the nationality column from passports would have made headlines. However, we could not find any credible reports from any Indian media houses.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA) is responsible for issuing passports to Indian citizens.
After reviewing the MEA Passport Seva website, we could not find any notice of a change in the nationality column.
We have noticed that nationality is still required in the passport application form available on the Passport Seva website.
For better clarity, we then reached out to Anurag Srivastava, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Srivastava confirmed that the viral claim was untrue and that the ministry had not removed the column of nationality from any travel documents.
“This is absolutely wrong. In all categories of travel documents issued by the government, the nationality column is maintained, and there is no change in the same,” Srivastava explained.
AFWA also received a copy of the latest Indian passport issued on 12 December 2020. The “Nationality” column is clearly visible at the top of this passport.
Earlier in February 2020, when the Citizenship Act (Amendment), 2019 (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) were debated in the country, senior government officials explained that Aadhaar, voter ID card and passport are not citizenship documents is not.
However, it is clear that the viral claim about the nationality column being removed from Indian passports is false. The Indian government still has the nationality column in all the categories of travel documents.
(With input from Geeta Mohan)
ClaimThe Indian government has removed the nationality column from Indian passports. ClosureThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to India Today that the nationality column has not been removed from the passport or any other travel document issued by the Indian government.
JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE
The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie.
- 1 Crow: Half true
- 2 crows: mostly lies
- 3 crows: absolutely false
