Congress condemns govt decision to revoke OCI status of Aatish Taseer

The Congress on Friday "unequivocally" condemned the government's decision to revoke Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status of journalist Aatish Taseer, saying this must be seen as a "wake-up call" for all members of the media fraternity.

Last week, the Ministry of Home Affairs revoked the OCI card of the 38-year-old British author saying he concealed the fact that his father was a Pakistani.

Critics have countered it, claiming Taseer was being targeted for his write-up "Divider-in-Chief" in the Time magazine which was critical of Modi.

"Aatish Taseer's mother is a very famous columnist Tavleen Singh. We have been reading her columns. When UPA was in power, he was anti-establishment, when NDA has been in power, she is pro-establishment. She has written in praise of Shri Narendra Modi like no other columnist, like no other Journalist and yet this is what is done to her family just because he chose to write against the government based on some facts in the Time Magazine," Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said.

"Imagine - if Shri Narendra Modi can do this to the son of his admirer, who has gone public with her admiration of Narendra Modi's policy and politics imagine what can be done to my friends in the media," Khera said.

"This is a wake-up call for every single member of the media fraternity man who could do this to Tavleen Singh's son can do anything to anyone," he claimed.

The Congress Party "unequivocally condemns" what has been done to Aatish Taseer for just doing his job, he said.

Taseer was raised by his mother Talveen Singh, an Indian journalist. His father Salman Taseer was governor of Pakistan's Punjab province when he was assassinated in 2011.