Protests: Norwegian tourist to leave India for joining a protest

A Norwegian tourist visiting India’s Kerala state on Friday posted on her social media page that she had been asked to leave the country after participating in a political protest.

Janne-Mette Johansson said in a Facebook post “a couple of hours back the Bureau of Immigration showed up at my hotel again. I was told to leave the country at once, or legal actions would be taken.

“I asked for an explanation and also something in writing. I was told I would not get anything in writing.’’

An official at the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Kochi confirmed the tourist was asked to leave India.

The official told dpa over telephone that “she violated her visa rules and has been asked to leave, we cannot give more details.

Johansson said she was leaving for the airport and hoped to catch a flight to Sweden via Dubai.

Johansson had posted photographs of a demonstration held in Kochi on Monday against a recently approved citizenship law, saying: “this afternoon I participated in a protest march.’’

Earlier, a German student on an exchange programme at the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai was also asked to leave for violating visa rules.

The student had also participated in a rally against the new citizenship law.

India is currently seeing widespread protests, some of them violent, against the law, despite orders in many places prohibiting such gatherings.

The Citizenship Amendment Act makes it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from three neighbouring countries to gain Indian nationality.

Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims and is against India’s secular constitution.