Actor Chetan’s OCI card cancelled

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under Amit Shah has cancelled the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card of Kannada actor Chetan Kumar, alleging “anti-national activities” and comments against sitting judges. The Sandalwood star, a vocal critic of the Hindutva ideology and the Prime Minister Narendra Modiled Union government, is an American national.

He got his OCI card back in 2018 and had been a Person of Indian Origin prior to that. Trouble began for Chetan on April 14 when he received a letter from Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), demanding that he return his OCI card within 15 days of receiving the letter, which had been dated March 28.

Notably, he had been arrested by Bengaluru police on March 21 over tweets criticising Hindutva and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), which had written to the FRRO demanding that his OCI status be revoked. The actor had also been issued a show-cause notice by the FRRO in June 2022 for criticising judges and “other anti-national activities”.

He had replied that he was married to an Indian national and had been working and engaging in social work in India. What was being referred to was Chetan’s tweet critical of High Court of Karnataka Judge Krishna Dixit back in February 2022.

The judge had questioned the behaviour of a woman who had alleged rape and the activist had questioned the judge’s objectivity to preside over a case pertaining to the right of girl students to wear hijabs in classrooms. On Friday, the MHA informed Chetan that his OCI had been cancelled over “anti-national activities”, adding that his written reply had been unsatisfactory.

The OCI offers permanent residency available to persons of Indian origin who are citizens of another country. The MHA said Chetan’s comments violated the 7D (b) and 7D (e) of the Citizenship Act. In 2019, British-born writer Atish Taseer had his OCI revoked for hiding that his father was a Pakistani.