'Country where I had lived and worked...': French journalist claims he was 'forced' to leave India

Sébastien Farcis, a French journalist, alleged on Thursday that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had refused to renew his permit, forcing him to leave India and preventing him from covering the general elections in 2024. He is the second French journalist to make such a claim in four months.

“On 17th June, I was forced to leave India, a country where I had lived and worked as a journalist for 13 years, as a South Asia correspondent for Radio France Internationale, Radio France, Libération and the Swiss and Belgian public radios,” Farcis posted on X on Thursday.

According to Farcis, the MHA notified him on March 7 that he would not be allowed to cover the general elections and declined to renew his journalist permit.

“This appeared to me as an incomprehensible censorship,” he wrote, stating that he had been working in India as a journalist since 2011 and had obtained all the necessary visas and accreditations. “I have…never worked in restricted or protected areas without a permit. On several occasions, the MHA even granted me permits to report from border areas,” he said in a statement.

“This denial comes as a worrying context of increasing restrictions on the work of foreign journalists: after Vanessa Dougnac, I am the second French journalist in four months to have to leave India under these conditions. At least five OCI foreign correspondents have been banned from working as journalists in less than two years,” he added.

After 23 years of working as a journalist in India, Dougnac was allegedly asked to leave on February 16. According to an Outlook report, she was also married to an Indian man and had a son. The MHA allegedly sent her a notice in January, charging her of penning "malicious" articles that undermined "the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India." She said that the notification mandated her to answer why her OCI card should not be cancelled.

According to a February reportin media outlet Article 14, the NDA government canceled at least 102 OCI cards between 2014 and May 2023.

OCI, a status created in 2005 under the Citizenship Act, of 1955, allows foreign citizens of Indian origin or foreigners married to Indian citizens, to enter India without a visa. It also allows them to reside, work and own property.

MHA has not reacted to Sébastien Farcis' claims yet.

(With inputs from agencies)