‘Sovereign decision’: MEA on UK academic Nitasha Kaul’s deportation
“The entry of foreign nationals into our country is a sovereign decision,” says MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal
The Ministry of External Affairs, reacting to the controversy over Indian-origin UK national Nitasha Kaul being deported from Bengaluru airport, has said that the entry of foreign nationals into the country is a “sovereign decision”.
“This particular UK national (Kaul) came to India on February 22. As you know, the entry of foreign nationals into our country is a sovereign decision,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday (February 29).
RSS critic
Kaul, a professor of politics, international relations, and critical interdisciplinary studies at the University of Westminster in London, alleged in a series of X posts that she was denied entry into India “for speaking on democratic and constitutional values” and that she was deported hours later.
She alleged that the Immigration department did not give her any reason apart from that it was an “order from Delhi”. Kaul had also claimed that the Immigration officials informally “made references to [her] criticism of RSS”.
BJP’s barb
Kaul, 48, had been invited to a conference on February 24 and 25, by Karnataka’s Congress government.
While the Karnataka BJP had slammed the Congress and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for inviting “an anti-India element” and thanked “security agencies” for stopping her from “suspiciously entering India”, the Congress said her deportation was an assault on freedom of expression and federal principles.
