Nitasha Kaul, an Indian-origin UK-based professor at the University of Westminster, on Sunday claimed that she was denied entry into India and was sent back to London from the Bengaluru airport based on “orders from Delhi”. Nitasha Kaul was reportedly invited by the Karnataka government to participate as a speaker in the two-day ‘Constitution and National Unity Convention -2024’ organised on February 24 and 25.

According to Nitasha Kaul, she was denied entry because of her opinions on “democratic and constitutional values”. She also said the airport officials made references to her earlier criticism of the RSS.

“I was given no reason by immigration except ‘we cannot do anything, orders from Delhi’. My travel and logistics had been arranged by Karnataka and I had the official letter with me. I received no notice or info in advance from Delhi that I would not be allowed to enter,” the Indian-origin professor wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

She added, “I spent 12 hours in a flight from London to Bangalore, several hours at immigration where they shuttled me here & there, provided no info on process, then 24 hours in a holding cell (no BA flight back until next day) under direct cctv w restricted movement, a narrow area to lie down and no easy access to food and water, made dozens of calls to airport for basic things as a pillow and blanket, which they refused to provide, then 12 hours on the flight back to London,” she added.

Asserting that she is not anti-India but anti-authoritarian and pro-democracy, Kaul said, “I am a globally respected academic & public intellectual, passionate about liberal democratic values. I care for gender equity, challenging misogyny, sustainability, civil & political liberties, rule of law…Decades of my work speaks for me.”

Who is Nitasha Kaul?

1. Nitasha Kaul is a professor of politics, international relations, and critical interdisciplinary studies at the University of Westminster in London.
2. Kaul has a BA Honours in economics from SRCC, Delhi University, and a masters in Economics with a specialisation in Public Policy, and a Joint Ph.D. in Economics and Philosophy from the University of Hull, UK (2003).
3. From 2002 to 2007, she worked as an assistant professor of economics at the Bristol Business School. In 2010, she worked as an associate professor in creative writing at the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan.
4. Kaul is also a novelist, writer, and a poet. Her first book was a scholarly monograph on economics and philosophy titled ‘Imagining Economics Otherwise: encounters with identity/difference’ (Routledge, 2007).
5. She is also the co-editor of a special Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) volume in 2018 on ‘Women and Kashmir’. Kaul has co-edited ‘Can you Hear Kashmiri Women Speak? Narratives of Resistance and Resilience’ (Women Unlimited, 2020) and has provided expert testimony as an academic at the US Congress on Kashmir and Human Rights in the aftermath of the 2019 revocation of autonomy for the region.