Ashraf Salettur incident: Bunder station ASI suspended
Mangaluru, November 6: City Police Commissioner TR Suresh suspended Bunder police station ASI Chandrashekar in related to assaulting Ashraf Salettur accusing him of posting insulting article in Facebook.
Against a Facebook post of some people that ‘Kerala was flooded as the Supreme Court has allowed woman in her menstruation period to enter Sabarimala temple’, Ashraf had asked ‘who is responsible for floods in Tulu Nadu, the creation of Parashurama?’ This has attracted comments favouring his stand and opposing him. Based on this, Bunder police station police have booked suo moto case against Ashraf under Section 153 and 505(2) and produced him before the court on August 22. The court has remanded him to judicial custody. After one week in jail, he came out on bail. Even after his release, he was questioning the injustice he meted out from the police. But the police served him a notice on September 4 saying that you have criticized the same issue in Facebook during the bail period and asked him to appear before the investigating officer. Otherwise, the police would file a petition before the court for cancellation of bail, it was said in the notice.
Considering this issue seriously, DYFI organization appealed the City Police Commissioner and the District Minister. Following the internal enquiry, the Commissioner has suspended the ASI.
DYFI district president BK Imtiyaz said that ‘the police department has tried to cover-up the case. As the court has allowed Ashraf to appoint his advocate, the police department has suspended the ASI. But it has not taken any action against DCP crime branch and CCB police for torturing Ashraf behind the bars, which is condemnable. The investigation method of the police officers has reduced the confidence on the department, he said.
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UK Professor Nitasha Kaul's Overseas Citizenship of India cancelled
Academician decries move as "transnational repression"
London/New Delhi: Professor Nitasha Kaul, a London-based academic, announced on May 18, 2025, via a social media post that her Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card has been cancelled by the Indian government. She described the move as a "bad faith, vindictive, cruel example of transnational repression" intended to punish her for her scholarly work critical of the Modi government's policies concerning minorities and democracy.
The cancellation follows an incident in February 2024 when Professor Kaul, who holds a British passport and held an OCI card, was denied entry into India upon arrival at Bengaluru airport. She had been invited by the then Congress-led Karnataka state government to speak at a conference on "The Constitution and Unity in India."
According to an image of the letter shared by Professor Kaul, the Indian government stated that it had been "brought to the notice of the Government of India that you have been found indulging in anti-India activities, motivated by malice and complete disregard for facts or history." The letter further accused her of regularly targeting India and its institutions on matters of India's sovereignty through "numerous inimical writings, speeches and journalistic activities at various international forums and on social media platforms."
Professor Kaul, who is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies and the Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Westminster, London, vehemently rejects these accusations. She stated she had provided a 20,000-word response to what she termed the government's "ridiculous inanity about ‘anti-India’," but the OCI was cancelled through a "rigged process."
In her social media posts, Professor Kaul lamented the decision, questioning how the "mother of democracy" could deny her access to her mother in India. She characterized the action as stemming from "thin-skinned, petty insecurity with no respect for well-intentioned dissent."
The February 2024 denial of entry had already sparked controversy. At the time, immigration officials reportedly cited "orders from Delhi" without providing formal reasons, though Professor Kaul mentioned informal references to her past criticism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The Ministry of External Affairs had then responded by stating that the entry of foreign nationals into India is a "sovereign decision." Unofficial government sources had indicated that a "preventive lookout circular" was issued against her due to her alleged "pro-separatist" and "anti-India" stance on Kashmir.
The BJP in Karnataka had criticised the state government for inviting her, labelling her an "anti-India element." Conversely, the then-Karnataka government and various international human rights organizations and academic bodies had condemned the denial of entry.
Professor Kaul has been an outspoken commentator on Indian politics, including the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, and has testified before international bodies such as the US Congress on human rights in the region. She maintains her work is academic and pro-democracy, not anti-India.
The cancellation of her OCI card effectively bars her from entering India, a country to which she has personal and academic ties. This incident adds to a growing list of academics, journalists, and activists of Indian origin whose OCI status has been revoked or who have been denied entry to India in recent years, raising concerns about freedom of speech and dissent. Reports indicate that over 100 OCI cards were cancelled by the Indian government between 2014 and May 2023. Furthermore, in 2021, new rules were introduced requiring OCI cardholders to obtain special permission for activities such as research and journalism.
