Ashok Swain, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, who is known for his anti-India and anti-Hindu views, has approached the Delhi High Court challenging the union government’s decision to cancel his Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card. Swain has argued that his OCI card has been cancelled arbitrarily, and claims that this cancellation violates his fundamental right to free movement and other rights.
Responding to the petition, the High Court has issued a notice to the Union Home Ministry and Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia, asking them to submit a response within 4 weeks. Ashok Swain lives in Sweden and his OCI card was cancelled by the Indian embassy to Sweden and Latvia. The matter has been listed for hearing on February 7.
According to the petition, Ashok Swain was issued an OCI card in January 2020, but in October in the same year, he received a show-cause notice from the Indian Embassy barring the OCI card, saying that he was indulging in inflammatory speeches and anti-India activities. He responded to the notice denying the allegations in November 2020. He also claims that no specific incidents of his anti-India activities were mentioned in the notice
The petition further states on February 8 this year, his OCI card was cancelled by the Embassy of India to Sweden and Latvia, under Section 7D(e) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
What Ashok Swain claims
After that, he moved the Delhi High Court challenging the cancellation, and argued that he was being ‘witch hunted’ by the Modi government and that his OCI card had been cancelled arbitrarily. Responding to the allegation of inflammatory speeches and Anti-India activities, he said that as a scholar, it is his job to criticise governments. He claimed that he only criticises the Modi government and its policies, and therefore he can’t be held guilty of indulging in anti-India activities under Section 7D(e) of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
Ashok Swain also claimed that the action violates his fundamental right to free movement and other rights accorded to him by virtue of his OCI status. He also said in the plea that he has an ailing mother of about 77 years old in India who is suffering from various medical ailments, and he has to visit her urgently. But as the OCI card is cancelled, he can’t travel to India to meet his mother, he claimed.
Several other people also claimed on social media that Ashok Swain has been banned from entering India.
What is OCI card and what does its cancellation mean?
OCI card is issued to people of Indian origin and their spouses who are citizens of other countries, allowing them to live in India for an indefinite period of time. People with having OCI cards do not have to obtain visas to travel to India, they can travel using the OCI card and their foreign passport, and therefore it allows them hassle-free entry into the country.
The OCI card does not grant Indian citizenship, voting rights, right to contest elections or hold public office to its holders. Therefore, an OCI card is more like a permanent visa to India with a lifetime residence permit, without requiring a visa stamp on the passport. The government of India holds the right to cancel OCI cards granted to any person.
When an OCI card is cancelled, the holder of that card loses the right to visa-free entry into India and the right to reside in India indefinitely. But, importantly, it does not bar that person from entering India like Ashok Swain is suggesting. After the OCI card is cancelled, he is now a normal person of Indian origin, and there is no ban on his entry into India.
Cancellation of OCI card means he can’t enter India without a visa, but he can obtain a visa and travel to India, just like any foreigner, including Indian foreigners who have not obtained the card. After entering India, Ashok Swain can stay for the time period stipulated in the visa.
Therefore, the claim that the cancellation of the OCI card violates his fundamental right to free movement and other rights is completely false and wrong. The Cancellation of the OCI card does not violate any fundamental right, because it is a privilege granted to foreigners of Indian origin by the Indian government, and it is not a fundamental right or any other right. It is important to note that the OCI card is a privilege, it is not a right.
Only the convenience of visa-free travel has been taken away, and there is absolutely no bar on his free movement in India just because his OCI card has been scrapped. Therefore, it is wrong to claim that he can’t visit his ailing mother because he does not have the OCI card. He can just get a visa to India and visit his mother, there is no ban on that.
It is important that the OCI card facility was introduced only in 2005, and people of Indian origin were travelling to India using regular visas before that. Moreover, Ashok Swain himself said that he was issued the card only in January 2020, and it was barred after 10 months.
According to the reports, Ashok Swain is living in Sweden for the last 32 years after obtaining his PhD from JNU in 1991. This means, from the time he surrendered his Indian citizenship till January 2020, he was visiting India without an OCI card, using the regular visa route. Therefore, the claim that he can’t visit India for cancellation of the OCI card issued just two years ago is completely false and baseless.
Ashok Swain and anti-India activities
Ashok Swain says that he only criticises the government and does not make anti-India comments, that claim is completely wrong, and he is regularly caught spreading anti-India hatred and sharing fake news that paints India as an anti-Muslim country.
Just a couple of days ago, he shared a video claiming that a man was beaten for being Muslim. Sharing a video, he tweeted, “Another day, another lynching! One more Muslim man being lynched in Maharashtra, India.” While the man survived, he falsely claimed that it was a lynching, however, he corrected this in a subsequent tweet. And the man was not beaten for being Muslim, he was beaten on the suspicion of being a thief.
Ashok Swain has shared similar fake claims earlier also, labelling random acts as anti-Muslim acts. Earlier in 2019, he had claimed that a Muslim boy was set on fire for not chanting Jai Shri Ram, when the fact is that the boy had set himself on fire in a dargah.
In India people regularly take the law into their hands after catching a thief, pick-pocketer etc, and most times the mob does not even know the religion and other identities of such people. But if such culprits happen to be Muslim, people like Ashok Swain claim they are attacked for being Muslim. The only reason to do this is to paint India as an anti-Muslim country. Therefore, it is definitely an anti-India activity.
Ashok Swain also wanted ‘Muslim Lives Matter’ protests in India to protest against supposed extra-judicial killings of Muslims in the country. He had in May 2020 said that the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in the US after the death of George Floyd need to be replicated in India to “oppose extra-judicial killings of Muslims in the country”. At that time, ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests meant riots and violence, where the protestors vandalised and looted stores. They had clashed with police, set vehicles, buildings including several police stations and medical stores on fire.
He wanted such riots and arson by Muslims and supporters of Muslims in India, which can be definitely called an anti-India activity.
Ashok Swain also regularly posts Hinduphobic tweets and mocks BJP, RSS, Narendra Modi and other leaders using condemnable terms. He denies that Muslim rulers had destroyed and looted Hindu temples, and he denies that there was a genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. He had called LTTE a Hindu terror organisation and even blamed Hindutva for the Covid-19 pandemic. He also praises Pakistan while criticising India, which indicates the direction of his loyalty.
His comments definitely come under hate speech, and the govt has the right to cancel his OCI card citing the same.
