Academic and commentator Ashok Swain of Uppsala University in Sweden is in the unique position of having his OCI status revoked twice by the Indian government. The government did not give any public reason for doing so but said that it had “sensitive information” which it submitted to the courts when Swain challenged the decision. On both occasions the courts overturned it. “I have great faith in the Indian judiciary,” Swain told Sidharth Bhatia in a podcast discussion.
Swain’s writings and tweets have been sharply critical of the Modi government. Now his X account is ‘withheld” in India and he says all his tweets before December 2024 have vanished.
“I got a lot of threats of a serious nature” and petitions to the university, said Swain, adding that his colleagues had been very supportive. “OCIs of many academics have been targeted.” However, he insisted he did not want to indulge in “victimhood”.
