Nitasha Kaul, the British academic of Indian descent who was deported by the government this past weekend after arriving at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, has responded to accusations that she was turned away for entry because she is “married to a Pakistani… a pawn of China… a puppet (of the) West.”

Nitasha Kaul is a Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Westminster in London.
Kaul, who was deported allegedly due to her “anti-India, pro-separatist sentiments,” according to government sources, claimed she didnot feel humiliated and that she was “a thinking woman, whom authoritarians fear.”

“Re: all the lies, I am not married to a Pakistani, not a Muslim convert, not a pawn of China, not a puppet of (the) West, not a commie (Communist), not a jihadi, not a Pak sympathiser, not a terrorist supporter, not anti-India, and not part of a gang,” she wrote in a post on X.

“I urge you to think beyond walls of hate against those different from you… and to read and understand what I say and think, before rushing to condemn. It is hard but it is possible.”she further wrote.

According to her website, her focus areas include “right-wing politics, postcolonial neoliberal nationalism, the Hindutva project in India, and the history and politics of Kashmir”.

On Sunday evening, Kaul posted a detailed message on X, saying she had been “denied entry to India for speaking on democratic and constitutional values”.

“I was invited to a conference… by Government of Karnataka (a Congress-ruled state) but the centre refused me entry. All my documents (UK passport and Overseas Citizen of India card) were valid…”

“I was given no reason by immigration except, ‘We cannot do anything, orders from Delhi’.”

A political controversy surrounding Kaul’s deportation is also escalating after the Congress, according to the main opposition party in Karnataka, invited “a Pak sympathiser who wants India’s break-up.”