French journalist Vanessa Dougnac, whose overseas citizenship of India status is under threat, first came under the government’s scrutiny more than two years ago. In September 2022, the ministry of home affairs revoked her special permission to work in the country as a media professional.
But she is not the only OCI journalist to have run into work permission issues.
Newslaundry learned that there are about 25 OCI journalists in India working with foreign media outlets, as of January 2024. At least one other journalist working with a foreign publication had to leave the country in 2022.
Several other OCI journalists have either been denied work permission or have not received a response to their applications, seeking permission to work in India, since September 2022.
The OCI status, which works like a life-time visa, is granted to foreign citizens with Indian roots or those whose spouse is an Indian citizen, among other criteria. As many as four OCI journalists spoke to Newslaundry. They did not want to be identified or singularly distinguished for the fear of being “targeted by busybodies” in the MHA.
Notably, journalists with OCI cards did not require special permission to work in India until March 2021.
This changed as the ministry of home affairs notified on March 4 of that year that OCI card holders would need special permission to undertake activities such as journalism, research, missionary work, tabligh activities, mountaineering, and internships in diplomatic missions. The notification was issued exercising powers under sub-section (1) of sub-section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955.
The OCI journalists who spoke to Newslaundry stressed that the process to obtain work permission was “vague”. “There’s clearly a lot of miscommunication or lack of communication between the home and the external affairs ministries about what is required to grant the permission,” said one of them.
While the MHA is the custodian of OCI matters under the Citizenship Act, the ministry of external affairs is reportedly the point of contact for foreign journalists and deals with the embassies and high commissions, a government source told Newslaundry. They added that for approval or denial of work permission, the MHA and its agencies undertake security clearance, while the MEA has a “very limited role”.
“No one knows on what basis the government of India denied or approved work permission to OCI journalists,” a journalist told Newslaundry. Another asked, “How are we supposed to know where we have gone wrong unless we are told the reason?”
This story was originally published in newslaundry.com. Read the full story here .
