NEW DELHI: Nitasha Kaul, a noted Kashmiri writer, novelist and a professor at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom said that she was denied entry to India and was deported from Bangalore airport after making her wait for 72 hours.
Kaul, who is an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), alleged that that she was denied “for speaking on democratic and constitutional values” and for views that are critical of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak (R.S.S) – the parental organisation of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) which is in in power at the Centre.
Kaul had been invited by the Congress government in Karnataka to speak at its Constitution and National Unity Convention on Saturday and Sunday to speak on the topic “Constitution and Democracy”. After she landed in Bengaluru, she was denied permission to leave the airport despite having a valid visa.
She said that she was invited by the Congress government in Karnataka to a conference but was denied entry even after having valid documents.
Kaul took to X to narrate her ordeal at the airport in a bunch of tweets. She had arrived by a British Airways flight from London on February 23.
“I was given no reason by immigration except ‘we cannot do anything, orders from Delhi’. My travel & logistics had been arranged by Karnataka & I had the official letter with me. I received no notice or info in advance from Delhi that I would not be allowed to enter,” Kaul stated.
Kaul added: “Decades of my work speaks for me. The officials informally made references to my criticism of RSS, a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary, from years ago. I have travelled to India numerous times since. I was invited by a state govt, but refused entry by the central govt.”
“I am deeply knowledgeable about multiple countries and worlds. I work across a range of disciplines, themes and geographical regions. Regarding the political transformation in India since 2014, I have years of analytical peer-reviewed published work,” she wrote.
She added, “I have also made important connexions in study of transnational repression, use of misogyny as a political strategy in authoritarian projects that undermine democracy, & rise of global right-wing. Also esp. on India, I know it very well. I am well versed in several languages, & can outdo any supposed defender of Hinduism when it comes to knowledge about religion, including the Sanskrit incantantations.”
“My origin is from a downtown mohalla in Srinagar, Kashmir, and I was born in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh — the land of saffron to the ‘saffronisation’ heartland,” Kaul wrote.
She wrote that the Karnataka state social welfare minister H.C. Mahadevappa had in a letter dated February 5 invited her to speak at the “The Constitution and Unity of India” event held in the city over Saturday and Sunday.
“I spent 12 hours in a flight from London to Bangalore, several hours at immigration where they shuttled me here & there, provided no info on process, then 24 hours in a holding cell (no BA flight back until next day) under direct cctv with restricted movement, a narrow area to lie down and no easy access to food and water, made dozens of calls to airport for basic things as a pillow and blanket, which they refused to provide, then 12 hours on the flight back to London,” Kaul wrote.
“I am a globally respected academic & public intellectual, passionate about liberal democratic values…. I am not anti-Indian, I am anti-authoritarian & pro-democracy.”
“Rightwing #HindutvaTrolls have for years threatened me w death, rape, ban etc. In the past, authorities have sent police to my elderly ailing mother’s home to intimidate, even though I live in UK & my work has no connexion to her, a pious temple-going dezhor-wearing retired Hindi teacher & my sole surviving parent,” Kaul wrote, sharing screen grabs of some abusive comments by trolls.
The UK based academic said that this was not the first time she had faced harassment from the Indian government.
She wrote, “I’ve always dismissed such threats as petty (since 2014, disinvite from arranged talk at Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, withdrawal of already publicised lecture on gender at JNU etc all without any official reason/explanation). When I was speaking on AI & Buddhism in a third country, an Indian official there tried to strong-arm me into giving them advice & info on that country too, which I refused.”
In an adjoining tweet, she said, “….and registered a complaint on email in writing, which closed with Tagore’s poem: ‘where the mind is without fear’. BTW, I am not averse to advising govts, policymakers, or to engagements with a state. However, I should be asked politely, respected for my views & time, and not bullied or coerced + I have to respect the values of those in power.”
Nitasha Kaul wrote, “I will not advise or consult with those who condone violence, foster hate, and repress their population in any country. You cannot buy me or bully me, and it is always a No to those who do not believe in decency.”
Kaul has been a vocal critic of the Narendra Modi government and its policies in Kashmir and rest of India.
In 2019, Kaul served as a key witness before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, testifying about the human rights violations in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
In one tweet, Kaul wrote, “This is also about what knowledge-making can do! Banning academics, journalists, activists, writers from India in spite of all valid documents is pathetic. The evidence is in public. In the country, academic institutions are being forced to toe the line (I have published on this), and outside the country now too, academic silencing?”
“I have heard of silence of academics in diaspora being purchased by getting people via informal mechanisms to agree/undertake that they will not be critical of ruling party in return for access to India,” she wrote.
“This has been a harrowing ordeal, and the harassment, indignities, attempted intimidation that I have faced make me determined to continue doing the right thing w empathy for those who are enrolled into this pernicious antidemocratic common sense anywhere due to ignorance, and pity for those who do it out of malice,” Nitasha Kaul wrote.
In a related tweet, she said, “I hope that I can see & touch my mother again. I love you mom. The heart-breaking price of critical scholarship, sadly, even in contemporary era!”
—–
Have you liked the news article?