Indian-origin professor Nitasha Kaul, revealed on May 18, that the government of India had cancelled her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status, citing “anti-India” activities.
In a series of posts on X, she wrote, “IMPORTANT NOTE – 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 & anti-democratic policies of #Modi rule.”
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She added, “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.”
The UK-based academician was referring to an incident in February last year, when she was denied entry into India after being invited for an event by the Karnataka state government. She accused the Centre of denying her entry due to her anti-RSS stance.
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In a post on X, Kaul said regarding her OCI status, “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 & bars access to family for overseas citizens of #India.”
The notice sent by the government of India stated that Kaul had repeatedly attacked India’s sovereignty in international forums and on social media. Kaul, who is a Kashmiri Pandit, had testified against the Indian government in 2019 at the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, over “human rights violations” in Jammu and Kashmir.
Who is Nitasha Kaul?
Nitasha Kaul is a professor of politics, international relations, and critical interdisciplinary studies at the University of Westminster in London. Kaul has a BA Honours in economics from SRCC, Delhi University, and a masters in Economics with a specialisation in Public Policy, and a Joint PhD in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Hull, UK (2003).
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From 2002 to 2007, she worked as an assistant professor of economics at the Bristol Business School. In 2010, she worked as an associate professor in creative writing at the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan.
Nitisha Kaul is also a novelist, writer, and a poet. Her first book was a scholarly monograph on economics and philosophy titled ‘Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with identity/difference’ (Routledge, 2007).
Nitasha Kaul also co-edited ‘Can you Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience’ (Women Unlimited, 2020).
She has repeatedly spoken out against Prime Minister Modi and the BJP-led government on her social media.