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| - Fact Check: No, Centre has not removed the nationality column from Indian passports
The official spokesperson to the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed to Indian Today that the nationality column is maintained in all travel documents including the passport, issued by the Indian government.
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India Today Fact Check
The Ministry of External 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.
A message claiming that the Indian government has removed the column for nationality in Indian passports is going viral on social media.
The claim in Hindi in the form of a WhatsApp message attributed to one Syed Etemad Uddin advocate translates to, "Legal Update: Modi government has removed the "Nationality" column from Indian passports. So, make sure not to destroy or lose your old passports."
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false. The official spokesperson to the Ministry of External Affairs 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 probe
Any move from the Central government to remove the nationality column from passports would have made headlines. However, we couldn't find any credible reports from any Indian media houses.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is responsible for the issuance of Passports to Indian Citizens.
Upon checking the Passport Seva website of the MEA, we couldn't find any notification regarding a change in the nationality column.
We noted that nationality is still asked in the passport application form that is available on the Passport Seva website.
For better clarity, we then reached out to Anurag Srivastava, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
Srivastava confirmed that the viral claim is false and the ministry has not removed the nationality column from any of its travel documents.
"It is absolutely incorrect. In all categories of travel documents issued by the government, the nationality column is maintained, and there has been no change in the same," Srivastava clarified.
AFWA also received a copy of the latest Indian passport issued on December 12, 2020. The "Nationality" column is clearly visible on the top of this passport.
Earlier in February 2020, when Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) were being debated in the country, top government officials clarified that Aadhaar, voter ID card and passport were not citizenship documents.
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 inputs from Geeta Mohan)
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