India advises students to follow US laws amid action against academicians, ‘they must comply with local laws’

The government has urged Indian students studying in the US to abide by US laws following the arrest of the researcher and visa revocation of another student who had to self-deport to Canada.

Both Badar Khan Suri and Ranjani Srinivasan did not reach out to the Indian embassies in the US for assistance, the report quoted Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the External Affairs Ministry said at weekly briefing on Friday.

The matters of visa and immigration are under the jurisdiction of the sovereign borders of the country, indicating that the US has final authority to decide over such matters.

“We expect that when we have foreign nationals coming to India, they abide by our laws and regulations. Similarly, we expect that when Indian nationals are abroad, they must also comply with local laws and regulations,” he said.

Suri and Srinivasan are the latest academicians targeted by the Donald Trump administration over Palestine support. Trump has labelled such people as “terrorist sympathizers” and warned to deport them.

Suri, an Indian researcher at Washington’s Georgetown University, was detained by US immigration authorities over alleged Hamas ties. He was detained by the US administration with the intention to deport him, stating he was harmful to US foreign policy, the student’s lawyer told Reuters on Wednesday.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote on X that Suri was “a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media.”

“Masked agents” arrested Suri from outside his home in Virginia Monday night, reported Politico.

However, on Thursday, the US Court stated that Suri would not be deported from the country.

Meanwhile, the visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian scholar, was revoked by the Trump administration over allegations of participating in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Following her visa cancellation, Ranjani reportedly self-deported to Canada.