Anti-India vlogger Karl Rock, who made a living for himself and his wife by engaging in propaganda aimed against India while on a tourist visa has now been blacklisted by the Modi government. Reportedly, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs is behind the blacklisting of the anti-India vlogger for his repeated and flagrant violations of visa norms. Karl Rock said that his wife Manisha Malik hails from Haryana and that by blacklisting him, the government is separating him from his wife and family. In a tweet addressed to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Rock highlighted his “struggle” and a petition that he launched in this regard.
Karl Rock, while ranting in a video, said that the Indian government stopped him from returning to India by unfairly adding his name to the Ministry of Home Affairs’ blacklist. “I left India to go travel Dubai and Pakistan in October 2020 and upon leaving they cancelled my visa at the airport. They wouldn’t tell me why. So, in Dubai, I applied for a new visa. They called me in for a meeting and told me I had been blacklisted and, therefore, they couldn’t issue me a visa to go home,” Rock wrote in his digital petition.
Foreign nationals are not allowed to engage in protests or political activities in India. Only Indian citizens are permitted to do so. Violation of this restriction can attract provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Amendment) Act, 2004. Also, it can attract provisions of Section 121 of the IPC that deals with waging war against the Government of India or abetting the same.
Karl Rock (foreign national) and his wife, Manisha Malik (Indian citizen) however, posted a ground report in December 2019 wherein he was seen participating in the manufactured anti-CAA agitation against the Indian government. After realising that he had flouted his visa norms, the vlogger deleted his YouTube video.
What also seems to have contributed to the man’s blacklisting by the Indian government is the fact that Karl Rock is a frequent visitor to terror state Pakistan.
In his latest rant, Karl Rock has expressed his disappointment over not being able to meet his Indian wife due to the Modi government’s move to blacklist him. “Imagine being up against the government of India. It was a lot of pressure on my shoulders? But, the one thing I learnt being in a Haryanvi family in India is that you never give up. We will stand up to the Indian government,” he remarked.
Meanwhile, Rock’s wife – Manisha Malik has moved the Delhi High Court seeking the quashing of a blacklisting order issued against her husband.