An Indian-origin British journalist critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lost his Indian overseas citizenship, a move campaigners said underlined the government's hostility to a free press.

The home ministry claimed Thursday that Aatish Taseer had "concealed the fact that his late father was of Pakistani origin" and was therefore ineligible for Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI).

Taseer's cover article on Time magazine's international edition titled "India's Divider in Chief" - next to Modi's face - was published in May ahead of elections that saw Modi win a second term in a landslide.

The writer's father Salmaan Taseer was born in pre-partition British India and was governor of Pakistan's Punjab province until his assassination in 2011.

Born in Britain, Aatish Taseer wrote on Time's website late Thursday that he lived in India from the age of two with his Indian mother - his sole legal guardian - and had no contact with his father until he was 21.

"The government had limited means by which they could legally take away my overseas citizenship. Yet they have now acted on those means," he wrote.

"(It) is hard not to feel, given the timing, that I was being punished for what I had written."

Under Modi, in power since 2014, India has fallen to 140th out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

At least six Indian journalists were killed in connection with their work in 2018, according to RSF, while noting a rise in attacks ahead of this year's election.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that Aatish Taseer's fate showed that Modi's governing party is "intolerant of criticism and freedom of the press".

"Harassing critical writers and journalists not just in India but globally is a disturbing new low for Modi's government that's already put Indian democracy on its heels," said freedom of expression rights group PEN America.

"Mr. Taseer was given the opportunity to submit his reply/objections regarding his PIO/OCI cards, but he failed to dispute the notice," an Indian Home Ministry spokesperson tweeted.

"He has clearly not complied with very basic requirements and hidden information."

Millions of people of Indian origin have OCI status, allowing them to travel freely into the country without a visa and stay indefinitely.

Taseer - born to Indian columnist Tavleen Singh and Salmaan Taseer, said the government had "weaponized" a technicality to punish him.

"I feel that anybody in my position has been sent a chilling message," he told Reuters on Friday, saying he now fears he may be unable to visit his mother and grandmother in India.

"What they have done is make an example of me. They are really showing that they are willing to go after writers and journalists," added Taseer, 38, from the United States where he lives.

Taseer said his mother had always been his sole legal guardian and he did not have contact with his father until the age of 21. He added that he was unsure what nationality he had listed for his father, who was also British, on his application but stressed he had never sought to hide his Pakistani links and wrote about his father extensively in a book a decade ago.

"I've not been given an opportunity to explain this," he said.

The Home Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Daniel Bastard, head of the Asia-Pacific Desk at Reporters Without Borders, said it was revenge for criticizing Modi, whom Taseer wrote had helped create "an atmosphere of poisonous religious nationalism" in India and failed to reform its economy.

"The revocation of Aatish Taseer's Indian overseas citizenship is just another example of how the Indian government tends to intimidate every journalist who does not toe the line of the BJP's narrative," he told Reuters.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also urged the Indian government to withdraw any directive to strip Taseer's overseas citizenship.-Agencies

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019