The Hindu : National : Centre cautioned against 'hasty moves' over dual citizenship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 19, 2004

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National

Centre cautioned against 'hasty moves' over dual citizenship

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE, NOV. 18. The Central Government has been cautioned against making "hasty moves" to confer dual citizenship on Indian communities in the littoral States of the Indian Ocean.

The note of caution was sounded by V. Suryanarayan, chair for Maritime Studies in the University of Calicut, at a lecture today on the University campus at Tenhipalam.

Welcoming the recent initiatives adopted by the Centre to establish close linkages with the people of Indian origin, Prof. Suryanarayan warned that the move to confer dual citizenship could have adverse effects.

A former director of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Madras, he wondered if the Centre had given due attention to the security dimension of the issue.

Another negative factor was that citizenship implied both rights and duties. While those conferred dual citizenship would be conferred certain rights, the Government has been silent on their duties.

He said the Indian minority groups in foreign countries were in the painful process of integration with the indigenous peoples and any hasty action would endanger their safety and security in moments of crisis in bilateral relations.

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