'Remarks on Hindutva' Case: Why Was Actor Chetan Ahimsa's OCI Card Cancelled?

Chetan Kumar 'Ahimsa' was recently arrested for tweets opposing Hindutva.

Why was actor Chetan Kumar's OCI card cancelled?  

(Photo: Twitter)

On 14 April, the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card of Chetan Kumar, an actor, activist and critic of right-wing politics, was cancelled by the Union Government, The News Minute reported. Kumar, popularly called Chetan Ahimsa, was recently arrested by the Karnataka police, and later released on bail, for his tweets questioning Hindutva.

What Is Chetan Kumar's Arrest Record?

On 21 March, Kumar was arrested by Karnataka Police for allegedly posting tweets opposing Hindutva on his Twitter timeline. In his tweet posted on 20 March, Ahimsa stated that Hindutva was an ideology "built on lies" and quoted the examples of Savarkar, the Babri Masjid, and Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda.

Kumar also added that Hindutva could be defeated by the truth and that "truth is equality."

In June 2021, two lawsuits were filed against Kumar over a video he posted denouncing Brahminism. Brahminism, according to Chetan, is the cause of caste discrimination in Indian society. Irked by his comments, in a letter to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) demanded that Chetan's OCI be cancelled.

In February 2022, Kumar was arrested for a tweet criticising a Karnataka High Court judge for presiding over petitions pertaining to the ban on Muslim women's right to wear hijab in educational institutions. According to Kumar, the judge had allegedly given anticipatory bail to a rape accused after judging the character of the rape survivor.

In October 2022, an FIR was registered against Kumar for questioning the alleged misrepresentation of ‘Bhoota Kola’ as a Hindu tradition in the popular Kannada film Kantara directed by Rishab Shetty.

Now, the FRRO has acted on a show-cause notice issued by them, in June 2022, to Kumar asking him to explain making "derogatory comments against judges" and his "anti-national activities." Kumar replied that he has been making socially relevant films, involved in social work in India, and also married an Indian citizen, The News Minute reported. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cited these as unsatisfactory reasons and intimated the actor that his OCI stood cancelled.

Who Is Chetan Kumar?

Kannada actor Chetan Kumar calls himself, in his twitter bio, an "activist and actor fighting for art, equality, justice, rationality, and non-violence."

Until he received his OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card in 2018, Kumar who is a US citizen based out of Chicago, was a POI (person of Indian origin). He graduated from Yale and has worked as a school teacher in a rural school in Mysuru and as a theatre artist before becoming an actor in Sandalwood.

He has starred in Kannada films including Myna (2013), Noorondu Nenapu (2017), Athiratha (2017), and Ranam (2021).

Kumar married Megha (who goes by her first name), a lawyer and social worker, in a non-religious ceremony in February 2020. The couple turned heads when they presented a copy of the Constitution as a gift to guests who attended their reception.

Megha told The Quint in 2022, that their marriage wasn’t a big fat wedding and that it was organised in an orphanage with their vows presided over by a transgender rights activist.

Kumar is the founder of FIRE (Film Industry for Rights and Equality), which works for the benefits of women, writers, and workers in the Kannada film industry. Kumar is known for voicing his opinions against right-wing politics and speaking up for social causes. Over the years, he has stood up for rights of historically marginalised communities including Adivasis and Dalits. He has also been voicing the concerns of a section of Lingayats, women and famers.

Kumar led a campaign to rehabilitate hundreds of Adivasi people whom the state government had allegedly evicted from the Devamachchi Reserve Forest in Dhidalli, Kodagu district, in 2017. He also campaigned for the ban on Ajjalu Padhathi, a tradition that forces Adivasi women to eat the hair and nails of pregnant women belonging to the dominant castes, The Telegraph India reported.