Days after London-based professor Francesca Orsini was deported from Delhi airport for alleged violation of visa conditions, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday (November 02, 2025) said that the Indian government needs to be more tolerant, broad-minded and big-hearted.

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram said showing ‘disrespectful attitude’ at the airport immigration counter to send back foreign scholars and academicians under deportation due to minor visa violations is causing more harm to the country than any negative article published in foreign academic journals.

Published article by former MP Swapan Das Gupta

Tharoor’s comment came in response to a post by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Swapan Dasgupta, in which he shared his article published in a newspaper and argued that it is the government’s duty to ensure compliance with visa conditions, but it is not its job to evaluate the scholarship of a professor.

Dasgupta, in his article titled ‘Orsini controversy reflects the danger of visa watchdogs’, said that now that the furore over the denial of entry to Orsini, a distinguished Hindi scholar living in Britain, has subsided, it would be appropriate to consider some of the issues arising from this controversy.

Shashi Tharoor agreed to Das Gupta’s article

Tagging Dasgupta’s post, Tharoor said, ‘For once, I agree with Swapan (55). Adopting a ‘disrespectful attitude’ at the immigration counters of our airports to deport foreign scholars and academicians for minor visa violations is doing us more harm as a country, a culture and an internationally trusted nation than any negative article published in foreign academic journals.

He said, ‘The Indian government needs to be more tolerant, broad-minded and big-hearted.’ Last month, the Congress had said the decision to deport Orsini was not a matter of immigration formality but a ‘symbol of the Modi government’s hostility towards independent, serious-minded, professional scholarship’.

For once, I agree with @Swapan55,

Rolling out an “unwelcome mat“ at our airport immigration counters to deport foreign scholars and academics because of trivial visa violations is doing us far more damage — as a country, a culture and an internationally-credible nation — than… https://t.co/8bA8y8pziy

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) November 2, 2025

Orsini ‘blacklisted’ for violating visa conditions

A Home Ministry source said Orsini, a Hindi scholar and professor emerita at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), was deported soon after her arrival from Hong Kong last month. The source said that Orsini has been blacklisted from March 2025 due to violation of visa conditions.

Commenting on Orsini’s exile on ‘X’, historian Ramachandra Guha said, ‘Exiling him without any reason is a sign of a government that is insecure, insensitive and even stupid.’ Describing Orsini as a great scholar of Indian literature, he said that his works have richly illuminated the understanding of our own cultural heritage.

Also read:- Two Bangladeshis have been living in a village in Bengal for two years, no action is being taken: BJP

Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan’s series The Bads of Bollywood has created a stir. It was released on Netflix some time ago. This series has been liked a lot. People did not expect that Aryan Khan would be able to make such a great series. Many celebs have been seen in this series along with Bobby Deol, Raghav Juyal and Lakshya Lalwani. Shashi Tharoor has recently watched The Bads of Bollywood and he can’t stop praising it.

Shashi Tharoor has praised Aryan by sharing a long post on social media and has described this series as very wonderful. This post of Shashi Tharoor is going viral on social media.

Shashi Tharoor praised Aryan

Shashi Tharoor told that he is suffering from cold and cough for the last two days, due to which he had to cancel many of his events. He wrote- ‘I was suffering from cold and cough for the last two days, due to which many programs had to be cancelled. During this time, my sister Smita Tharoor and the staff advised me to rest and watch this new series on Netflix India. This has turned out to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me, absolute OTT gold!’

I’ve been battling a cold & cough and canceled engagements for two days. My staff and my sister, @smitatharoorpersuaded me to turn my eyes away from the computer part of the time towards a @NetflixIndia series, and it’s one of the best things I have ever treated myself to:… pic.twitter.com/xRUHv8ERTB

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 26, 2025