Painful to see govt making false claim: Shashi Tharoor on writer Aatish Taseer citizenship row

The OCI card which allows foreign citizens of Indian origin to work indefinitely and enter India without a visa is given to all nationals except those of Pakistan and Bangladesh

Former minister and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday attacked the government for revoking the citizenship status of writer and journalist Aatish Taseer and accused it of making a ‘false claim’.

Shashi Tharoor’s statement follows reports of the Union Home Ministry revoking the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status Taseer for allegedly hiding information. (Milind Saurkar/HT Photo)

“It is painful to see an official spokesperson of our government making a false claim that is so easily disproved. It is even more painful that in our democracy such things happen. Is our Govt so weak that it feels threatened by a journalist? the lawmaker from Thiruvananthapuram tweeted.

“Mr. 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,” the MHA spokesperson said in tweet late on Thursday night. The MHA also said Taseer had “concealed” the fact that his father was a Pakistani national.

The OCI card which allows foreign citizens of Indian origin to work indefinitely and enter India without a visa is given to all nationals except those of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The OCI was introduced in response to persistent demands for dual citizenship which is not allowed under the Indian Citizenship Act .

Taseer in response tweeted that the allegations of not responding to an opportunity to challenge the decision is “untrue”.

Tweeting what he said was the Consul General’s acknowledgement of his reply he wrote: “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”.