Indian govt revokes Aatish Taseer’s citizenship

Citizenship of Aatish Taseer, who is the son of the late Salman Taseer has been revoked by the Indian Government.

According to details, Aatish Taseer is a New York-based author and journalist.

Taseer’s critical article was published in Times Magazine against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A notice was issued to Aatish Taseer from Ministry of Home Affairs India, that he did not disclose his Father’s nationality, who was a Pakistani National, so he cannot qualify for Indian Overseas Citizenship.

Yesterday, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Home Affairs of India tweeted that Taseer had failed to answer the ministry’s questions about his Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) cards.

"Govt. considers revoking Author Aatish Ali Tasser's OCI card after his Time article..", as reported by #ThePrint, is a complete misrepresentation and is devoid of any facts.

— Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (@PIBHomeAffairs) November 7, 2019

Taseer, on the other hand, disputed the claims by the Indian Home Ministry, tweeting that he had responded to their notice.

“This is untrue. Here is the Consul General’s acknowledgment of my reply. I was given not the full 21 days, but rather 24 hours to reply. I’ve heard nothing from the ministry since.,”he tweeted.

This is untrue. Here is the Consul General’s acknowledgment of my reply. I was given not the full 21 days, but rather 24 hours to reply. I’ve heard nothing from the ministry since. https://t.co/z7OtTaLLeO pic.twitter.com/t3LBWUtkdi

— Aatish Taseer (@AatishTaseer) November 7, 2019

Aatish Taseer is the son of an Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and Salman Taseer, a former governor of Punjab, in Pakistan.

“Targeting a journalist’s immigration status after the publication of a critical article shows that the Bharatiya Janata Party is intolerant of criticism and freedom of the press, and doesn’t bode well for India’s international reputation,”, said a Journalists Organization “To Protect Journalists”.