Nirupama Rao to take up sham US varsity issue with Clinton

WASHINGTON - Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao is expected to take up the issue of some 1500 Indian students of a sham US university with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday.

Ahead of the meeting, Indian Ambassador Meera Shankar conveyed to Clinton the details on the issue of Indian students of Tri-Valley University in California, which was closed last month on charges of visa fraud.

Shankar sent the details to Clinton after External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna sought her personal intervention in a telephonic talk over the weekend to ensure that the interests of Indian students of the sham university are protected and their future is not jeopardised.

Some 1,555 students of TVU, 90 percent of them from India, mostly Andhra Pradesh, face the prospect of deportation unless they can get admission in another institution to retain their student visa status.

“Following the telephonic conversation between the External Affairs Minister of India and the US Secretary of State on Feb 13, the Indian Ambassador today conveyed to the Secretary of State details on the issue of the Indian students at Tri Valley University,” Indian Embassy said in a statement Monday.

At their meeting Tuesday, Clinton and Rao “primarily . will focus on preparation for the upcoming Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi,” in April, State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley told reporters Monday.

Rao, who arrived here from New York Sunday evening, will also meet with Under Secretary of state Bill Burns, US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator Raj Shah and other officials of State, Commerce, Defence, and Energy departments.

Rao has already held meetings with some officials of the Obama Administration at the White House and the State Department. She also met lawmakers on the Capitol Hill.

(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)