Nitasha Kaul deported: Congress slams govt; BJP labels her 'anti-India'

Bengaluru: After an Indian-origin professor from the UK invited to a conference by the Karnataka Government was denied entry at Bengaluru airport, the ruling Congress said it was an assault on freedom of expression as well as federal principles, while the BJP labelled her 'anti-India' and said she was unwelcome.

Professor Nitasha Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit faculty at the University of Westminster, had arrived in Bengaluru from London, where she is based, to attend the two-day Karnataka government-organised conference titled 'Constitution and National Unity Convention-2024', on February 24 and 25.

Karnataka ministers said on Monday that the incident shows how individual rights as well the rights of the state governments are being trampled upon, while the BJP labelled the professor, who is an Overseas Citizen of India, "a known terrorist sympathiser" and claimed that she "disseminates anti-India propaganda".

"Denied entry to India for speaking on democratic & constitutional values. I was invited to a conference as esteemed delegate by Govt of Karnataka (Congress-ruled state) but Centre refused me entry. All my documents were valid & current (UK passport & OCI)," she said on social media platform X on Sunday, sharing pictures of the invitation extended to her by the Karnataka government and other conference related communications.

Karnataka Social Welfare Minister H C Mahadevappa said on Monday that the denial "is a fresh demonstration of how the rights of state governments are being repeatedly trampled".

"It is a stark reminder of the multiple challenges to the constitutional idea of India. All patriotic Indians must reflect on these threats and unite to reclaim our Constitution,” he remarked.

It is the right of the Karnataka Government to both organise a convention on the Constitution and to host experts who can meaningfully contribute to how the state’s development and national interest can be furthered, he said. "Our rights (and hence the federal principles enshrined in our Constitution) were once again undermined by the Government of India."

Mahadevappa further pointed out, “It cannot be selectively weaponised to circumscribe the rights of Indians (including diaspora Indians who are equal partners in the nation’s development). If we claim to be the Mother of Democracy, we need to also steadfastly adhere to all those values underpinning our democracy." 

Rajya Sabha member and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh also expressed anguish over the incident. He sought to know why Professor Kaul was deported.

“Sorry @NitashaKaul the “Mother of Democracy” didn’t allow you an eminent Kashmiri Pandit Professor to attend a Constitution and National Unity Convention '24 organised by Government of Karnataka. We at the Bangalore conference waited to hear you speak. Would Hon @PMOIndia or @AmitShah please let us know why she was detained and deported back to UK?” Singh said in a post on X.

BJP state president B Y Vijayendra condemned the Karnataka government for inviting the professor.

“Highly Disgusting of the @siddaramaiah govt to whitewash the crimes of ‘TUKDE TUKDE GANG’ by inviting its sympathiser Nitasha Kaul for a talk on ‘Constitution & Unity of India’,” Vijayendra said on X, branding the professor with labels used routinely against dissenters to portray them as being against the interests of the country.

The Shikaripura MLA opined that it is "highly condemnable" and an "unpardonable crime" that the Congress government in Karnataka invited the professor.

He also commented that it was "equally disgusting" that all the top leaders of the Congress party attended the conference, which went on without the professor.

“What is more worrisome & annoying of the @siddaramaiah govt is its indulgence in unwanted expenditures involving crores of rupees when our state & the farmers are already in distress owing to unprecedented drought & severe water crisis,” Vijayendra said, without elaborating on what the cost of the conference was and what percentage of farmers would have benefitted from the amount spent.

Minister for Large and Medium Industries M B Patil remarked that the deportation of the professor showed "what type of democracy is there in India, how the BJP respects the Constitution and the status of the freedom of speech and individual freedom".

“They (BJP) try to suppress them (liberties). This is not a good thing for our country because in our country Baba Saheb Ambedkar has given a world-class Constitution where everyone’s views are respected. There is freedom to talk,” Patil explained.

Shivajinagar Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad wondered if there is a dictatorial system in the country that an individual’s freedom of expression is being curbed.

“A state government in a federal system invites an academic who is of Indian origin but she is told by the central government that she cannot enter the country just because she doesn’t subscribe to your ideology.

Is this dictatorship in the country today? Is there no freedom of expression or no freedom to participate in a debate on the Constitution?” he sought to know.

Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while commenting on the incident in a post on X, insinuating that the former chief of the grand old party was sympathising with "terror appeasers", among other things.

Former Infosys Chief Finance Officer, Mohandas Pai, a prominent resident of Bengaluru justified Dr Kaul’s deportation, branding her in similar terms as the BJP leaders did. "She can continue doing whatever she wants, but outside India,” Pai said on X.