"The reason they're afraid of people like me and my voice is because they cannot challenge me on facts," says UK-based Indian-origin professor Nitasha Kaul in an exclusive interaction with The Quint, following the Indian government's decision to revoke her OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) status.
Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, who has for years been a critic of the Narendra Modi government and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), says that she received a letter from the Indian government informing her of the cancellation of her OCI card on 18 May this year. Among other things, the letter accuses her of indulging in 'anti-India' activities and speaking against the country in international forums.
The government's decision comes around a year after Kaul was denied entry into India when she had flown down to Bengaluru to attend a conference on the Indian Constitution.
Speaking to The Quint, Kaul says that the allegations against her are 'completely unsubstantiated', adding that she is mulling legal steps for the restoration of her OCI status so that she can go to India and meet her ailing mother.
Excerpts from the interview:
Can you tell us about the nature of the Indian government's letter to you?
On 18 May, I came home and I got this letter which, like their communication last year, was backdated. The day that you get the letter isn't the day that the letter is addressed. The letter is addressed weeks and weeks ago. But I received it then. In this letter they make completely unsubstantiated allegations. It's basically calling someone things without actually providing any evidence of it.
According to Section 7(D) of The Citizenship Act of 1955, a person's OCI status can be revoked on the following grounds:
1. Use of fraudulent means to obtain an OCI
2. Withholding of information
3. Displaying disaffection towards the Constitution
4. Aiding an enemy during a war
Have any of these grounds been mentioned in the government's letter to you?
If I look at the letter, I don't think they actually mention any of these specific grounds. They say, '...under Section 7D of the Citizenship Act, we cancel it (OCI card)'. It doesn't say under which part of those powers conferred. There's only that one paragraph which has no links to any evidence.
I've had the OCI a long time… I've not withheld any information. I'm at the polar opposite end of displaying disaffection to the Constitution. I think the Constitution is a sacred document. Those of us who are struggling right now against authoritarianism and the idea of India are actually pilgrims on the road of hope to democracy. Democracy is an ancient dream, and it's always been under threat everywhere. So it takes work—you don't just get to maintain a democracy if people in general don't care. So I think the people in India who are doing this are brave.
For my part, as an academic who studies democracy and who has longstanding work on India, I have absolutely no disaffection for the Constitution. As per aiding an enemy during a war, that makes zero sense. I have no idea what they even mean by that. But they don't say any of that in the specific letter.
Following the Pahalgam terror attack, you wrote an opinion piece for The Conversation on 24 April, two days after the attack, calling for accountability on the part of the Indian government. You said that following the attack, calls for Home Minister Amit Shah to resign were being labelled as 'anti-national', and you juxtaposed the situation to the time when the 26/11 terror attacks had occurred when the then Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned four days after the attack. Similarly, you featured in an interview with Al Jazeera in which you discussed the Pahalgam attack and the regional tensions it had led to. However, the interview was blocked by YouTube India. Do you think that your public statements triggered the cancellation of your OCI status?
When you push for tourism in the region (Jammu and Kashmir) as a political solution, and you say everything is normal, and that we are going to send tourists there and everyone will see how the situation is great, it imposes upon you a responsibility to provide for security and to make sure that large-scale attacks of this kind, carried out by terrorists, don't happen.
(Since J&K) is a Union Territory and not a state, law and order is actually controlled by the Centre. It's the people, both Kashmiris and the tourists, who are actually stuck in this situation because the tourists are going there, thinking that everything is normal, and will be safe and secure. Heaven bless them, those people who died these awful deaths that none of them deserved, they were targeted by terrorists who have still not been caught. Why was it that a distance away from the border, there was so little security? What security was there? How were these terrorists able to get in and target these people?
(Asking these questions) is not anti-national—that's common sense 101. In any country in the world, there would be executive political accountability and politicians would be asked these questions. These are Indian citizens. They were targeted by terrorists. You need to go after the terrorists—not just say that you will go after them. You need to actually find out where the lapses occurred. One of their ministers, Kiren Rijiju, did use the word 'lapse'. So if there is a lapse, there has to be accountability.
According to data accessed by The Hindu on the basis of an RTI application, cancellation of OCI cards spiked in 2024, with the government cancelling as many as 57 OCI cards last year alone, accounting for nearly half the number of cancellations in the last 10 years. By doing this, what kind of message is the Indian government trying to send out?
If you cancel more OCIs in one year, almost half the number you've cancelled in 10 years, that doesn't point to anything other than the fact that you are growing insecure and seeking to silence and repress people. And that you are afraid of the 'word'—the written word, the spoken word, and you are afraid of people in the media and academia and those who are precisely the kind of voices you need for a mirror to be shown.
This has carried on year-after-year, with increasing crushing of dissent or seeking to silence and make examples out of people. And it's so multi-dimensional—it's going after people in politics, media, academia. And it's making nothing better. All it does is trying to silence people which is a hallmark of an authoritarian style of governance. This is not how a democracy should function. Those in the media, politics, society or any walk of life—inside or outside the country—who are facing this, are part of the same story.
Are you planning to contest the cancellation of your OCI status?
I'm left with no option but to have to go through the legal route. I'm not a lawyer... I welcome any and all help from people who are more aware of the legal profession, so that at least I have some idea of how to navigate this. What I do know is that any court will obviously see sense in what I'm saying, so that's not the point. The point is the process, and they know that the process is the punishment sometimes—the process of going through that.
For more, watch the full interview.