Indian government revokes writer Aatish Taseer's OCI status for 'hiding information'

The Ministry of Home Affairs also said that the writer (whose mother is Indian journalist Tavleen Singh and father was late Salman Taseer, a governor of Pakistan's Punjab province who was assassinated) concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani origin.

Taseer had penned an article in Time magazine against the Modi-led Indian government and the opinion piece called in title Modi as a "Divider-in-Chief" of India. 

The MHA spokesperson tweeted: "Mr. Aatish Ali Taseer, while submitting his PIO application, concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani origin. Mr. Taseer was given the opportunity to submit his reply/objections regarding his PIO/OCI cards, but he failed to dispute the notice."

"Thus, Aatish Ali Taseer becomes ineligible to hold an OCI card as per the Citizenship Act, 1955. He has clearly not complied with very basic requirements and hidden information," read another tweet.

The government rejected a media report that claimed that it was considering revoking author Aatish Ali Tasser's OCI card following his article and tweeted: "'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."

The writer said he was not given enough time to respond to the charges.

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."

Taseer had declared his mother as his sole legal parent/guardian, sources told NDTV. 

Tavleen Singh tweeted: "Thank you for this reminder. Aatish’s mother has also always been an Indian citizen. And, his right to live here was never questioned until he wrote an article that the Home Minister did not like."

Taseer told the BBC that the move is  "sinister in the way they orchestrated it".

"First they ruined my reputation by getting one of their men to call me a radical Islamist, and then they moved against me after leaking the story to the press," he told BBC.

What does OCI status mean?

A foreign national, who was eligible to become citizen of India on 26.01.1950 or was a citizen of India on or at anytime after 26.01.1950 or belonged to a territory that became part of India after 15.08.1947 is eligible for registration as Overseas Citizen of India (OCI). Minor children of such person are also eligible for OCI, read the MEA website.

However, if the applicant had ever been a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, he/she will not be eligible for OCI.

Benefits:

OCIs are entitled to a multipurpose, multiple entry, lifelong visa allowing them to visit India at any time, for any length of time and for any purpose.

They are exempted from police reporting for any length of stay in the country.

They have also been granted all rights in the economic, financial and education fields in parity with NRIs except, the right to acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties.