UK-based researcher deported from Indira Gandhi International Airport

NEW DELHI: London-based academician and researcher Francesca Orsini was on Monday denied entry into India upon arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, as she “was blacklisted in March this year for having violated the conditions of her tourist visa by undertaking research during her previous visits”, according to govt sources.

Orsini, Professor Emerita of Hindi and South Asian Literature at the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics in London, is a literary historian working with Hindi and Urdu texts and has been researching into how multilingualism works within the literary cultures of South Asia. Orsini had reportedly arrived in Delhi from Hong Kong before she was deported.




“She was denied entry in line with the visa rules. It had come to the agencies’ notice that she was doing research projects while in India on a tourist visa. This is a clear violation of her visa conditions. As per standard global practice, if a person is found violating visa conditions, he or she can be blacklisted,” a senior govt official told TOI. To undertake research in India, a foreign national must have an ‘R’ visa.

As some prominent persons, including Opposition MPs, took to X to slam Orsini’s deportation without being offered a reason as mark of “a govt that is insecure, paranoid and even stupid,” officials stressed that it is every nation’s sovereign right to admit or deny entry to a foreigner. “In this case, the subject was blacklisted and offering an explanation is not mandatory while deporting a blacklisted person,” said the official.

In Feb last year, another UK academic, Nitasha Kaul, was deported upon arrival at Bengaluru airport on the basis of a preventive lookout circular opened against her after Indian agencies flagged her consistent “pro-separatist” comments and “anti-India” line on Kashmir on public fora. Her ‘overseas citizen of India’ was also cancelled later.

An application for R visa must specify the subject or topic of the research project, details of places to be visited in India during the project period, details of any previous visits to India, certificate of affiliation from a recognised Indian university or institution and evidence of financial resources to meet the expenses for stay in India.
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