UK-Based Indian-Origin Professor Loses OCI Over 'Anti-India Acts' After 2024 Bengaluru Deportation

Last Updated:May 19, 2025, 16:06 IST

Nitasha Kaul, the UK-based professor, alleged that the she was being subjected to “transnational repression” for her work on “anti-democratic policies” of the Government of India.

Nitasha Kaul, UK-based professor, loses OCI (Photo: X/ @NitashaKaul)

An Indian-origin professor in the UK, who was deported from the Bengaluru airport last year shortly after landing, said that the Government of India has cancelled her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status for being involved in “anti-India activities".

Nitasha Kaul, the Kashmiri Pandit academician, alleged on Sunday that she was being subjected to “transnational repression" and she was getting punished for her work on “anti-democratic policies" of the government.

Sharing the notice she received from the government on X, she said, “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."

The notice shared by the woman said that it was brought to the GoI’s notice that she had been “indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history".

“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," it read.

The Indian-origin woman is a professor in the Department of Politics and Relations at the University of Westminster, London, in the United Kingdom. She had graduated from Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce and later pursued a Master’s and a PhD from Hull University in the UK.

In a linked post on X, she talked about her last year’s deportation from the Bengaluru airport and dubbed it an “insult" to the Congress government in the state that had sent out an invitation to speak at a convention.

“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," she wrote.

London, United Kingdom (UK)

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