More than 250 writers, journalists, artists and activists have joined English PEN, PEN America and PEN Interntional urging the Indian government to review its decision to rescind a key citizenship document for journalist Aatish Taseer. The letter says the Indian government is likely retaliating against Taseer for his critical coverage of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and calls on the prime minister to ensure no writer is punished for speaking out.
The full text of the letter follows.
Narendra Modi
Prime Minister of India
We, the undersigned writers,
journalists, creative artists, academics, and activists, are writing to
join PEN America, English PEN, and PEN International to express our
grave concern regarding the Indian government’s recent decision to revoke writer and journalist Aatish Taseer’s Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status.
Taseer, a U.K. citizen with a U.S.
Green Card, has had documentation registering his overseas Indian status
since 2000, which allows foreign citizens of Indian heritage to live
and work in India indefinitely. His case is unusual; he grew up in India
with his single mother, the prominent Indian journalist Tavleen Singh,
as his sole guardian, and has spent the majority of his life there, both
as a child and adult. He was estranged from his father Salman
Taseer—who is of mixed British and Pakistani heritage and who lived in
the U.K. at the time of his brief relationship with Taseer’s mother,
whom he never married. They did not meet until he was an adult. Although
the OCI regulations stipulate that the status is not granted to an
individual whose parent or grandparent is of Pakistani or Bangladeshi
origin, Taseer grew up in India with his Indian mother and Indian
grandparents, and his parents were estranged when Taseer moved as a
child to India with his mother. In his application for the OCI status,
Taseer listed his father’s name and never tried to hide his identity; in
fact, a number of his books and articles have extensively covered his
heritage and past.
In May 2019, amid a contentious
Indian election season, Taseer wrote a cover story for TIME magazine
headlined “India’s Divider in Chief,” which drew an official complaint
from the Indian government and sustained online harassment. On September
3, 2019, Taseer received a letter from the Indian Home Ministry (dated
August 13, 2019) notifying him of the government’s intention to revoke
his OCI card and giving him three weeks to respond. He responded the
following day, and this reply was acknowledged by the Consulate General
of India in New York, but he received no further word until November 7,
when the Home Ministry announced in a series of tweets that Taseer had
hidden information about his late father’s nationality and had failed to
challenge their notice; Taseer disputes both claims. A
few hours after the home ministry’s tweets, Taseer received an email
from the consulate informing him that the Government of India had
cancelled his OCI status, effective immediately. If an individual’s OCI
status is revoked, they may be placed on a blacklist preventing their
future entry into India.
We are extremely concerned that
Taseer appears to have been targeted for an extremely personal form of
retaliation due to his writing and reporting that has been critical of
the Indian government. We urge that the spirit of the OCI regulations,
which are designed to provide status and connection to their roots and
family to citizens of other countries with Indian heritage, are upheld,
and do not discriminate against single mothers. Denying access to the
country to writers of both foreign and Indian origin casts a chill on
public discourse; it flies in the face of India’s traditions of free and
open debate and respect for a diversity of views, and weakens its
credentials as a strong and thriving democracy. We write to respectfully
request that the Indian government review this decision, to ensure that
Aatish Taseer has access to his childhood home and family, and that
other writers are not similarly targeted.
Signed,
| Michael Adams Chimamanda Adichie Ayad Akhtar Shahidul Alam Zain Alam Eric Alterman Suroosh Alvi Zanab Alvi Christiane Amanpour Tahmima Anam Kwame Anthony Appiah Lisa Appignanesi Margaret Atwood Paul Auster Gary J. Bass Alison Bechdel Daniel Levin Becker Nicole Beckley David A. Bell Mukund Belliappa Alexander Benaim Dev Benegal Homi K. Bhabha Kai Bird Stefan Merrill Block Marie Brenner Suzanne Brøgger Tina Brown Saffron Burrows Robert A. Caro Casey Cep Michael Chabon Amit Chaudhuri Ron Chernow Sandra Cisneros John Coetzee Joshua Cohen Lauren Collins Pamela Colloff Lydia Conklin Leopoldine Core Molly Crabapple Meehan Crist Rana Dasgupta Hayes Davenport Laura Davis Joséphine de La Baume Mary Dearborn Don DeLillo Anita Desai Kiran Desai Mira Desai Diva Dhar Jennifer Egan Bina Sarkar Ellias Louise Erdrich Jeffrey Eugenides Sir Harold Evans Clara Farmer Mia Farrow Thalia Field Amanda Foreman Emma Forrest Jonathan Franzen Nell Freudenberger Shruti Ganguly Arunabh Ghosh Amitav Ghosh Francisco Goldman Priyamvada Gopal Philip Gourevitch Andrew Sean Greer Lev Grossman Guy Gunaratne Ruchira Gupta Mohsin Hamid Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) Githa Hariharan Anne Heller Alexander Hemon Hitha Herzog Faith Hillis Martha Hodes Brooke Holmes Anadil Hossain Jessie Hunnicutt Siri Hustvedt David Henry Hwang Yudhishthir Raj Isar Leela Jacinto Christophe Jaffrelot Maya Jasanoff Sheila Jasanoff Margo Jefferson Radhika Jones Mira Kamdar Rohan Kamicheril Meena Kandasamy Sofia Karim Mary Karr Tara Kelton F.T. Kola Amitava Kumar Anjali Kumar Hari Kunzru R.O. Kwon Paul La Farge Thessaly La Force Jhumpa Lahiri Nikita Lalwani Alix Lambert Fran Lebowitz David Lelyveld Ben Lerner Amelia Lester Jonathan Lethem Christian Lorentzen Robert Lowe Kelly Luce Benjamin Lytal Larissa MacFarquhar Ajay Madiwale Karan Mahajan Hisham Matar Damodar Mauzo Liese Mayer Ian McEwan Jay McInerney Thomas Meaney Palash Mehrotra Arvind Krishna Mehrotra Suketu Mehta Andrew Meier Vivek Menezes Dinaw Mengestu Maaza Mengiste |
Dilip Menon A G Krishna Menon Corey Miller Rick Moody Honor Moore Rose Marie Morse Benjamin Moser Madhusree Mukerjee Neel Mukherjee Samhita Mukhopadhyay Nitin Mukul Akshaya Mukul Sukumar Muralidharan Perumal Murugan Azar Nafisi Amrita Narayanan David Nasaw Thandie Newton Alastair Niven Jinx Nolan Rachel Nolan Nancy Novogrod Edna O ‘Brien Susan Orlean Peter Orner Adam Ortman Orhan Pamuk Maulik Pancholy Prajwal Parajuly Rajesh Parameswaran Gregory Pardlo Oliver Parker Joseph Patel Veena Patwardhan Maya Perez Ross Perlin Carmen Petaccio Charles Petersen Claudia Roth Pierpont Steven Pinker Lara Prescott Francine Prose Shaifali Puri Alejandro Puyana Schona Jolly QC Philippe Sands QC Zia Haider Rahman Sara Rai Raju Rajagopal Sigrid Rausing Debraj Ray Victoria Redel David Remnick David Rieff Kristina Rizga Corey Robin Phyllis Rose Gary Rosen Enrico Rotelli Nilanjana S Roy Anuradha Roy Antonio Ruiz-Camacho Salman Rushdie Ajitha G S Salma Galia Saouma Bina Sarkar George Saunders Martha Saxton Stacy Schiff Tanya Selvaratnam Chaitali Sen Vijay Seshadri Arjun Sethi Elif Shafak Anoushka Shankar Shilpa Sharma Sheetal Sheth Snehal Shingavi Aroon Shivdasani Gary Shteyngart Nikesh Shukla Marisa Silver Beth Silverman Manisha Sinha Zadie Smith Andrew Solomon Alec Soth Ahdaf Soueif Gloria Steinem Maud Streep Lavanya Sundarajan Kannan Sundaram Manil Suri Tanaïs (née Tanwi Nandini Islam) Preti Taneja Peter Tatchell Jeet Thayil Judith Thurman Sharwari Tilloo Vivek Tiwary Ellen Tremper Monique Truong Anne Tyler Kirmen Uribe Karthika V.K. Nilita Vachani Amanda Vaill Jayapriya Vasudevan Sunita Viswanath Amy Waldman Ayelet Waldman Esmé Weijun Wang Rob Waters Gregory Wayne Edmund White Edward Whitfield Katherine Whitfield Ethan Wilensky-Lanford Naomi J. Williams Colin Winnette Gabriel Winslow-Yost Matt Wolfe Tobias Wolff John Wray Hanya Yanagihara Sarover Zaidi Jenny Zhang |