Months After Losing OCI Status, Aatish Taseer Gets US Citizenship

Taseer had garnered a lot of attention, including flak from certain groups, in May 2019 for his article on PM Modi.

Aatish Taseer, author and columnist, whose Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card was revoked in November 2019, became a US citizen on Tuesday, 28 July.

(Photo Courtesy: Aatish Taseer/Twitter)

Author and columnist Aatish Taseer, whose Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card was revoked in November 2019, became a US citizen on Tuesday, 28 July.

Taseer took to Twitter to share the news:

“Some news: At an oath-taking ceremony today in lower Manhattan, I became a US citizen. Less than a year after the Modi govt stripped me of my status in India, it is amazing to be part of this great country. I hope to vote in Nov – my first time! – for the big heartedness I saw today.”   

Aatish Taseer, Author

Aatish Taseer took to Twitter to share the news.

Taseer had garnered a lot of attention, including flak from certain groups, in May 2019 for writing a cover article for Time Magazine, describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “India’s divider in chief”.

Later that year, the government had contended that Taseer had allegedly hid the fact that his father was from Pakistan, and stripped him of his OCI status.

Taseer had also reportedly told The Week that he didn’t think he could live in India.

“I think India is going to be a place where a certain kind of English-speaking person of my background will have a harder and harder time. But to be gay, to be Muslim, I am at too sharp an angle to it.”   

Aatish Taseer to The Week