Indian-origin British academic Nitasha Kaul on Sunday said her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status was cancelled, alleging it was a response to her scholarly work critical of the Narendra Modi government’s “anti-minority and anti-democratic policies.”
“I received a cancellation of my OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) today after arriving home. A bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of TNR (transnational repression) punishing me for scholarly work on anti-minority and anti-democratic policies of Modi rule,” Kaul posted on X.
Overseas Citizen of India is an immigration status that allows foreigners of Indian origin to live and work in India indefinitely.
She went on to say: “Modi BJP govt humiliated themselves and insulted non-BJP Karnataka state govt that invited me last year by ill-treating me and in spite of my 20,000 word response to their ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’, they have chosen to do this by a rigged process.”
“Will overseas PR delegations of GOI say why ‘mother of democracy’ denies me access to my mother? This is thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent that arrests/imprisons citizens in India and bars access to family for overseas citizens of India,” she added.
In a post on X, Kaul shared a communication from the Union government that accused her of indulging in “anti-India activities” that were said to have been motivated by a disregard for facts or history.
The communiqué from the government read: “Through your numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms, you regularly target India and its institutions on the matters of India’s sovereignty.”
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
