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DIASPORA AND CITIZENSHIP

TO SET IN motion the process of granting dual citizenship to people of Indian origin, the Centre had two options. First, to wait until the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 was further amended to fulfil Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's promise of extending the dual citizenship offer to all those who migrated after January 26, 1950. Secondly, provisionally to accept the limitations of the existing law — which offers overseas citizenship only to Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) from 16 countries — and kick-start the process of establishing a broader relationship with the Indian diaspora. The Centre has wisely settled on the second option. To wait until suitable legislation was in place would have been to submit to the vagaries of Parliament and, ipso facto, risk extensive delay. There was also the issue of the increasing impatience amongst members of the Indian diaspora, who felt that the Centre was dragging its feet on the overseas citizenship issue.

Under the circumstances, it was important for the Centre to initiate the process of granting dual citizenship rather than get bogged down in a potentially time-consuming legislative process. It is relevant to point out that the existing law — the Citizenship (Amendment) Act enacted by the National Democratic Alliance Government — is a blatantly discriminatory one, restricting as it does the offer of overseas citizenship to those from developed countries. Dr. Manmohan Singh's formulation does away with this brazen economic prejudice. But in order to ensure that all PIOs are treated equally, the United Progressive Alliance Government should see that there is no place for another discriminatory provision that was worked into the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The Explanation under Section 7 A defines a PIO as a foreign citizen who is, or has not been, "any time a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh or any such country as the Central Government may specify." Since all requests for overseas citizenship are processed on a case-by-case basis, there is no rational basis for disqualifying people merely because they previously held the citizenship of a country figuring in a negative list. An example of this irrationality would be the ineligibility of a child born in India who migrated with his or her parents to Pakistan after January 26, 1950, and is today a citizen of the United States or the United Kingdom.

Until the Act is satisfactorily amended, the Centre proposes to introduce a vastly simplified procedure for granting dual citizenship. One unfussy form will shortly replace the existing three cumbersome documents that applicants are required to fill in, and the process of scrutiny will be streamlined. An issue that remains to be settled is the physical character of the dual citizenship document. The three options being considered are a simple certificate, a passport-like booklet, and a smart card. Considering that the passport of the future is widely expected to be a card with an embedded computer chip, the third option seems to be the most forward-looking. However, it is likely to be most time-consuming because it will mean working out the technical specifications, identifying the necessary hardware, and ensuring of machine readability at all exit and entry points. One option for the Centre is to settle for a paper document and switch over to the smart card option after the infrastructure is ready. Such a course will avoid a further hold-up in the grant of overseas citizenship, a facility that must be available for India to engage the diaspora fully. It was in January 2003, at the first Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced dual citizenship for PIOs. Any further procrastination in delivering on the promise will be inexcusable.

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