PUDUCHERRY: Controversial American historian and an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Peter Heehs still plans to leave the country briefly on April 15, even after the Ministry of Home affairs granted him a one-year extension of his visa. Using the ticket I bought in compliance with the ministry’s earlier order with regard to my visa, I have decided to make the trip as scheduled, said a relieved Heehs. “I look forward to fulfilling a long-postponed speaking engagement in Europe and visiting family and friends in USA. I will return to India sometime in July,” he said in an e-mail to Express. “Since a couple of years I have been unable to go as my papers were not in order and could not leave the country for various reasons,” said Heehs. His visa application remained under suspension for one-and-half years, following the controversy over his book ‘The lives of Sri Aurobindo’. “I will be visiting Vilnuis in Lithuania, where I will deliver a talk on Sri Aurobindo and Gandhiji,” said Peter. He has planned to spend a week in the country and go on a sight seeing tour.Thereafter he would be going to USA.“I am grateful to the Home Ministry for reviewing my case and arriving at a decision that shows the government values freedom of expression and diversity of opinion within the framework of Indian law,” said Heehs. He said the Puducherry Foreigner Regional Registration Officer had provided him necessary documents and endorsements yesterday, after his application for extension stay was approved.Heehs has been in India since 1971 immersing himself in studies surrounding the life and teachings of Aurobindo and spent four decades in the archives of the ashram. Now with MHA granting him an year’s stay, he would return back and continue with his work. However, the controversy over his book has made him famous which he shuns. “I am looking forward to become a nobody again,” said Heehs who is expected to leave India on Sunday.
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