Indian-origin scholar whose OCI tag was cancelled provided evidence to US against India on Kashmir

British scholar and author Nitasha Kaul has provided evidence to the report that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) tag was cancelled by the Government of India. Government of India notification listed her "anti-India activities" as grounds for cancellation of her OCI, for having done so in bad faith and repeatedly trying to intrude into India's sovereignty in international forums and social media. The Kashmiri Pandit intellectual had deposed before the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2019 against the Indian government for "human rights abuses" in Kashmir.

Nitasha Kaul shared a portion of the government notification on X on 18th May:

".and whereas it has been brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history."

The government statement went on, "By your diverse critical writings, orations, and journalism pieces on different foreign websites and social media, you continuously besmirch India and Indian institutions in the matter of India's sovereignty."

The majority of social media also welcomed the government action of revoking Kaul's OCI status and felt that she "didn't deserve any kind of access to India.".

Kaul was deported within the hours she landed at Bengaluru's international airport in 2024. She had visited India on a special invitation from the Karnataka Congress government and her deportation was an offer of a big hue and cry. 

KEY WITNESS IN US HOUSE COMMITTEE AGAINST INDIA ON ARTICLE 370

Nitasha Kaul was one of the principal witnesses to a 22 October, 2019, hearing conducted by the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the condition of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

This followed the August move to abrogate Article 370 by annulling the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under the Indian Constitution and bifurcating the state into two union territories.

Kaul is a lecturer in the politics, international relations, and critical interdisciplinary studies of University of Westminster. Her witness statement appears on the website of the university.

"Both Indian and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have instances of the misuse of human rights. India is part of Jammu and Kashmir but never ceases to be the same non-respectful vis-a-vis the inhabitants of Kashmir and does not shy away from depriving them of their basic human rights.".

"The Indian reaction to Kashmiri protests, peaceful, peaceful, if violent, has been more state violence," she continued.

Kaul is also credited to "commemoration of one massacre at the expense of the other".

She also demanded revocation of Article 370.

"Whatever was done on 5 August 2019. Jammu and Kashmir by another name in the Indian constitution – did it have de jure autonomous statehood?" And in fact, the act was followed by a lock down in the state," she said.

"This is India's routine run, neither colonial autocracy nor democracy," she vowed while taking oath. "Thousands of young people, including children, have been arrested and taken to prisons in far-flung parts of India so that their parents cannot welcome them with a monumental inconvenience."

NITAHSA KAUL, Delhi University civil rights activist

Nitasha Kaul is a departmental research fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. She is a post-graduate from Delhi University's Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), and holds a Master's and PhD from Hull University, UK.

On May 18, in her weblog, she applied the term to the 2024 one when she herself was deported the very moment she arrived at Bengaluru airport and had termed it an "insult" to the non-BJP Karnataka state government who had invited her.

The Karnataka state government likewise invited Kaul to speak at a convention, but immigration authorities allegedly kept her out by "informally" making "references" to her "censure of the RSS.".

"DDdenied entry to India to give a speech on democratic & constitutional values. Invited to a conference as (an) distinguished delegate by (the) Govt of Karnataka (Congress govt) but (the) Centre refused me entry. All my documents were valid & in time (UK passport & OCI)," Kashmiri Pandit scholar had tweeted shortly after the event in 2024.

The OCI card on which the tweet was made has been revoked now.