The United States apologized and granted a visa on Friday to the Indian-born president of a world science body after he said he was refused entry on charges of hiding information that could be used for chemical weapons.
Professor Goverdhan Mehta, 62, an internationally recognized organic chemist, is president of the Paris-based International Council for Science, or ICSU, and had been invited to a conference by the University of Florida.
The U.S. embassy said his application, made to the consulate in the southern city of Chennai, had only been delayed because additional information for its processing was needed. On Friday, days ahead of President Bush's visit to India, the embassy apologized to Mehta.
"The U.S. Embassy is pleased to note that a visa for Professor Goverdhan Mehta was issued today," an embassy statement issued Friday in New Delhi said. "Ambassador (David) Mulford called on Professor Mehta on Thursday to notify him and express both his apologies and satisfaction that a visa would be issued immediately."
The ICSU called the tough rules for granting U.S. visas to scientists after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as "outrageous" and termed the way Mehta was treated by the U.S. consulate in Chennai as "hostile."
"Professor Metha is a very well known scientist, but there are many lesser-known scientists to whom this is happening," said Carthage Smith, deputy executive director of the ICSU, an umbrella group of 133 national academies of science and international science unions. "The bigger issue is important."