Academic Invited For Talk But Denied Entry Into India, Deported

Nitasha Kaul claimed that she was denied basic facilities at the Bengaluru airport before being deported from India and sent back to London. She also claimed that rightwingers had threatened her for years and even intimidated her mother, who lives in India

In a series of tweets, Indian-origin professor in the UK, Nitasha Kaul, 48, claimed on Sunday that she was denied entry into India when she landed at Bengaluru airport and was deported from the country hours later.

Reportedly, the academic was invited by the Karnataka government to speak at a convention, but immigration officials refused her entry, she said. Immigration cited “orders from Delhi” as the reason, Kaul said. They reportedly “made references” to Kaul’s “criticism of the RSS”, the Kashmiri-Pandit academic/writer further claimed.

Kaul was to speak on democratic and constitutional values at the ‘Constitution and National Unity Convention’. All her documents were valid and current (UK passport and OCI), Kaul tweeted. Kaul is a professor at the University of Westminster in the UK.

She says her travel and logistics had been arranged by the Karnataka govt and she had the official letter with her. She had not received any advance information from Delhi that she would be denied entry into the country, she has tweeted.

“Decades of my work speaks for me… I have travelled to India numerous times… I was invited by a state govt, but refused entry by the central govt,” the writer tweeted.

“I spent 12 hours in a flight from London to Bangalore, several hours at immigration where they shuttled me here and there, provided no info on process, then 24 hours in a holding cell (no BA flight back until next day) under direct cctv w restricted movement, a narrow area to lie down,” Kaul tweeted. She claimed that she had no “easy access to food and water” and was refused basic facilities such as a pillow and blanket.

Kaul claimed that she was denied basic facilities at the Bengaluru airport before being deported from India and sent back to London. She also claimed that rightwingers had threatened her for years and even intimidated her mother who lives in India.

Karnataka BJP responded to Kaul’s tweets by wondering why the Congress party and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had invited the writer. “It is now apparent that the Congress party is now using Karnataka as its laboratory to prepare ground for its divisive agendas, potentially undermining national unity & integrity,” the BJP tweeted. The party thanked “security agencies” for stopping “one such anti-India element” from entering India.