US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand Issue Travel Advisories for India

In late October 2011, a string of travel advisories issued by Western governments — including the United States and Australia — cautioning their citizens about travel to India drew a sharp response from New Delhi.

India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, in Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) foreign ministers' session, raised the issue directly with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd, asking Australia to withdraw its advisory. Krishna called the language of the advisories "disproportionate" and "contrary to the current trend of tourism to India," and said he would raise the matter with his counterparts from Canada and New Zealand as well.

Rudd responded that such advisories were "routine" advice, and that Australia had no specific threat information to share with India.

The advisories came in a year of genuine security anxiety. In July 2011, three coordinated bombings in Mumbai killed 26 people; in September, a bomb outside the Delhi High Court killed at least 10 and injured dozens. Western governments urged their citizens to maintain heightened vigilance in public places.

New Delhi's position was that the advisories overstated the risk and could damage tourism. It was not a new argument — two years earlier, Home Minister P. Chidambaram had similarly called a US travel advisory "unwarranted," insisting India was "safer than many other countries."

The episode captured a recurring tension: travel advisories are risk assessments issued by governments for their own citizens, but they land politically in the host country — as a judgment on its image, its stability, and its tourism economy.

Source: The Hindu BusinessLine — "India asks Australia to withdraw travel advisory" (Oct 26, 2011)