Top News

Academic, writer and professor Nitasha Kaul said that the Indian government has cancelled her Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status, accusing her of academic work against “anti-minority and anti-democratic policies.”

Taking to X, she said, “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.

Kaul, a professor of Politics, International Studies, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Westminster in London, served as a key witness before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, where she testified on human rights violations in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370, which had granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Her post shared a statement from the Central government that accuses her of indulging in “activities that pose a threat to India’s sovereignty.”

“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,”

“Modi BJP govt humiliated themselves & insulted non-BJP Karnataka state govt that invited me last year by ill-treating me & 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,” her X post read.

In February last year, Nitasha Kaul was invited by the Karnataka Congress government to deliver a lecture at a conference on the topic ‘The Constitution and the Unity of India’.

However, she was detained for nearly 24 hours upon her arrival at the Bengaluru Airport before being deported to London.