Kashmiri-origin UK professor loses OCI status over criticism of rights violations in IIOJK
New Delhi: The Indian government has cancelled the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status of Kashmiri Pandit and British-based academic Dr. Nitasha Kaul over her outspoken criticism of human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and democratic backsliding in India.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Dr. Kaul, a professor at the University of Westminster in the UK, shared the cancellation notice on social media, calling it a form of “transnational repression” in retaliation for her academic work highlighting anti-minority and anti-democratic policies under Narendra Modi’s government.
“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,” Kaul wrote on X.
Last year, Dr. Kaul was deported from Bengaluru Airport shortly after landing to participate in an academic conference. Her consistent advocacy for Kashmiri rights and criticism of Indian state policies has made her a target of state-led reprisals, rights defenders say.
Kaul, who originally hails from IIOJK,, studied at Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce before completing her postgraduate studies and PhD from the University of Hull in the UK.
The revocation of her OCI status underscores the increasing clampdown by the Indian government on dissenting voices, both within and outside its borders.
