Aatish Taseer, a British Indian journalist and author, who has been critical of Narendra Modi’s regime has been stripped of his overseas citizenship of India (OCI). Introduced in 2005, the OCI is an immigration status of an unlimited duration that permits persons of Indian origin to live and work in India. Citizens of Bangladesh and Pakistan are excluded from OCI.
The revocation of Taseer’s overseas citizenship comes a few months after he published a piece in the Time magazine, condemning the regime for the rise of religious nationalism in the country.
Taseer was born in the United Kingdom (UK), but raised in India, where he also spent ten years after the age of 25. As a child, Taseer had no connection to his father: he only discovered his identity upon turning 21.
The Home Office of India stated that reason for citizenship revocation was that Taseer “concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani origin”, which made him ineligible for the OCI. The journalist’s father, Salman Taseer, was born in pre-partition British India, and later on was the governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province. Salman Taseer was assassinated in 2011, for opposing the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. Aatish Taseer frequently wrote about his father and denies that he has concealed his Pakistani origin.
For further information on the citizenship regime of India, check out our country profile pages, and for the most recent developments read our blogs Paths to Citizenship, Paths to Statelessness, The National Registry of Citizens: Violating Muslims, Violating Humanity in Assam, and India’s National Register of Citizens: Fine intentions, Ominous portents.
The featured picture is entitled ‘Indian Passport of 3 types‘ and originally appears here.
