Dozens of Indian-origin lecturers, journalists and others say they’ve been denied the appropriate to go to India due to their criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Hindu nationalist authorities.

While not denying the actions, the Modi authorities says the individuals in query had their visa privileges revoked as a result of they indulged in “anti-India activities” — an accusation the banned people rejected.

Their trigger has been taken up by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group, whose Asia director mentioned in a report this week that the federal government’s actions “show the authorities’ growing hostility to criticism and dialogue.”

“The authorities seem intent on expanding politically motivated repression against Indian activists and academics at home to foreign citizens of Indian origin beyond India’s borders,” mentioned Elaine Pearson.

The barred critics have been amongst 4.5 million individuals all over the world who maintain Overseas Citizen of India standing, which is granted to people who’re of Indian origin however not residents of the nation. Anyone holding an OCI card is granted a number of entries to India and a lifelong visa for any size of keep.

Since Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, got here to energy in 2014, an rising variety of Indian-origin foreigners have been denied entry to India. From 2014 to May 2023, Indian authorities canceled 102 OCI playing cards.

The HRW assertion famous that lots of those that had their playing cards revoked have been lecturers, activists and journalists who’re generally known as vocal critics of the BJP’s political philosophy.

“In some cases, the [Indian] authorities have openly cited criticism of BJP government policies as evidence to revoke the [OCI] visa status,” the HRW assertion mentioned.

Ashok Swain, a professor of peace and battle analysis in Sweden who had his OCI card revoked in 2020, advised VOA the federal government’s “accusations … that I indulge in ‘illegal activities inimical’ to the interests of the sovereignty, integrity and security of India is nothing but fiction.”

Indian-origin Swedish tutorial Ashok Swain, whose OCI card was revoked by the federal government of India for alleged anti-India actions, mentioned accusations in opposition to him are fictitious.

Swain mentioned he challenged the cancellation, and in July 2023, the Delhi High Court quashed the federal government’s order, “for its failure to provide any evidence” of anti-India actions.

“In August 2023, the government canceled my OCI card again,” he mentioned.

“I am an academic, and it is no secret that I criticize the policies of the Modi government through writing opinion pieces, speaking to the press and commenting on social media,” added Swain, who teaches at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“The Modi government is using my case as an example to instill fear among diaspora academics, discouraging them from criticizing its anti-democratic and anti-minority policies.”

Last month, Indian authorities barred Nitasha Kaul, an Indian-origin British professor on the University of Westminster in London and an OCI card holder, from getting into India to attend a convention on the Indian structure.

At Bangalore airport, the immigration officers denied her entry following “orders from Delhi,” she wrote on X, previously Twitter.

IMPORTANT: Denied entry to #India for talking on democratic & constitutional values. I used to be invited to a convention as esteemed delegate by Govt of #Karnataka (Congress-ruled state) however Centre refused me entry. All my paperwork have been legitimate & present (UK passport & OCI). THREAD 1/n pic.twitter.com/uv7lmWhs4k

— Professor Nitasha Kaul, PhD (@NitashaKaul) February 25, 2024

“The officials informally made references to my criticism of RSS, a far-right Hindu nationalist paramilitary from years ago,” she wrote. RSS, or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, is seen because the ideological mentor of the BJP.

“In addition to this, they have called me jihadi and a terrorist. There has been a vast amount of deliberate disinformation suggesting that because my work is critical of the ruling party in India, that makes me pro-Pakistani,” she mentioned.

British anthropologist Filippo Osella, a professor on the University of Sussex who had visited India for 35 years in reference to analysis, was turned away from Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala state, the place he was going to attend a convention on coastal communities.

“I later learned that I had been permanently blacklisted from ever entering India again,” Osella advised VOA. He mentioned that many analysis collaborations are actually being “jeopardized by unjustified deportations and blacklistings, which are becoming all too common.”

Modi’s ruling BJP acknowledges the cancellation of the OCI playing cards however defends the apply.

Those whose playing cards have been canceled “make a nefarious and negative campaign against a political party that has been duly elected by the people of the country. They aim to malign and tarnish the image of the nation and the ruling party,” Delhi-based senior BJP chief Alok Vats advised VOA, talking in Hindi. “These people should not be allowed to enter India.”

But Angana Chatterji, an anthropologist on the University of California in Berkeley, mentioned the Indian authorities aggressively tracks and targets many who communicate out in opposition to its insurance policies and those that dissent in opposition to Hindu nationalism.

The Indian authorities “propagandizes the myth of ‘India shining,’ to position its majoritarian beliefs as beneficial to the national interest and security,” mentioned Chatterji, who in 2019 testified earlier than the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs concerning human rights violations in India-administered Kashmir.

“The Modi-led government camouflages its heightened militarism, casteism, exclusionary changes to the law that privilege Hindus, violent governance of vulnerable communities, especially Muslims, and its sacralization of India as a Hindu state.”