Should NRIs need Dual Citizenship ?
The people of Indian origin, who are settled in a foreign land, express their love and cherish their heritage of Indian culture whenever they visit India. Despite integration into political, economic and social life of the host society in the adopted country, they manage to upkeep the Indian culture and tradition. Such people, if considered for dual citizenship, will be useful and we can reap maximum benefit from such emigrant population.
It should be done in case of the persons of Indian origin from those countries only who are friendly and are not a threat to our society. Further more, we should have good relations with those countries so that they will reciprocate our step in a positive manner. Many NRIs are well settled in foreign lands. They are big business persons, industrialists and exporters. They wish Indian citizenship to invest money in India. They have foresight about their future in India. There should be no problem if such emigrants, who have the trust of their mother land , are given dual citizenship. That will extend greater facilities to them to establish their network in India if we get rid of bureaucratic procedures and problems, which generally come in the way of NRIs.
We know about the growing economy of China. One of the reasons of their success is that their steps to attract their non residents are bigger and lucrative than ours. They are reaping maximum benefits from their emigrant population. We should emulate the example of China and take decision for giving dual citizenship to NRIs and extend wide range of facilities to them.
Every NRI wants to contribute to his maximum for his mother land. However, he feels helpless because of the system in India. He invariably has a desire to invest money in India but tariff rules and the inspector raj act as dampener.
India has to catch a lot with the rest of the world. There is a huge reservoir of resources , talent, and good will in the Diaspora, which needs to be tapped. If we want India's dream of turning India into a developed country in the coming two decades to come true, it has to involve NRIs into task. NRIs who are talented and willing to work for their mother land will be an asset if put to good use. If we go back to the Gandhian principle, we find that he saw space in India to create a new India. Gandhi, therefore, believed that Indians should dedicate themselves to invest their strength to bring change, make India free and prosperous. Similarly, the NRIs today want to invest to enrich themselves and at the same time to contribute indirectly to build up a new India.
So our government has to give the opportunity to attract overseas Indians to invest in India, so that they as well as our countrymen reap maximum benefits out of their efforts. If we take this positive step to grant a dual citizenship to NRIs , we can expect from them adequate contribution, monetary benefits and effort to regenerate India.
Besides, certain NRIs are more capable of investing a large capital and yield maximum return possible. There is a necessity to invest more and make the sector of tourism and civil aviation attractive. The tourist places are yet to be maintained in fine order and we have to develop our own ways to attract more travelers to our country. Not only tourism. Our NRI people can help us in developing our nation and raising our standards in different methods. We need their investment in our country which will help us in many ways. Allowing them a dual citizenship is very much helpful in grabbing more investment to our country as foreigners have some limitation in investing in India. Our financial sector always need a boost up and we are always looking forward in attracting foreign investments to our country. More and more investment is a good sign of development an we need that as much as possible for attaining our dream of India 2020. There is a space to execute new items of tourism through new major projects. Our airport are of low standard . They have to be made more comfortable,attractive and competitive. Like ways we need foreign investment for many of our needs. Whether it is maintaining our resources our resolving limitations of our current resources, we always welcome and in a need of foreign investment. By allowing a dual citizenship, we can attract investment from our own people.
Therefore, we can make good use of capabilities of NRIs in these fields. Our own government has taken a positive initiative in this regard to entertain NRIs and has already granted dual citizenship to NRIs from a few of the countries. This is a positive foresight of our government to make our dream of twenty first century come true. As a beginning its a nice step to take. We can start it from a corner and if we see it a s a success thane we can elaborate it to many other areas.
There are cases where people from other countries who are not of Indian origin have been given Indian citizenship. It will be more relevant if we give citizenship to the people of our own origin first, who carry love in their hearts towards their mother land. And wish to do something for the country. If NRIs are given dual citizenship, they will have visa free entry, which will be a boon for them since NRIs spend a lot of time and money. Dual citizenship will re-establish relationship with top professionals and potential NRIs who can be attracted for broader interest in India for multiple benefits to both the sides. It will bring them back to their own land. At least it will attract them to visit their home land. Now the condition is that they don't try to visit our country because there are lots of formalities in it.
Dual citizenship will advertise Indian culture and identity more all over the world since this will increase movements of NRIs . It is a psychological aspect and human nature will make NRIs being of Indian origin will always do the maximum safe guarding their own interest as well as the interest of their mother land. Keeping all this points in view, its worth to say that NRIs should be given dual citizenship. In fact, Indian government has already started giving dual citizenship to the NRIs. That is a good sign towards a good change.
But the thing never ends here.
Every coin has both ends. Is there and problems in granting them a dual citizenship ?
Lets see about it..
If a person has settled on the soil of another country and taken its citizenship, is there any need in giving them a dual citizenship? Because his loyalties are then divided. Dual citizenship will be unnecessary and will contradict the existing laws and rules of the country if the opportunity is not handled carefully. A person having dual citizenship can be doubtful of divided loyalty. Obviously, he will be equally loyal for both the countries, i.e, his adopted country, where he or his ancestors settled after foreseeing luxuries future or whatever may be the reason.
The ethics of equality is very important for a society and so is diversity. If an NRI is given dual citizenship he will have to face problems in many ways. As per that international law, a person can possess political right for having the citizenship of only one country even though he is resident of a country where he gets dual citizenship. If NRIs are given dual citizenship then their entry to the country will increase problems in security issues. Also as we are rich and suffering in booming of population, we don't want to invite more people to settle in India but we cannot reject anyone if they like to settle in his mother land. There will also be more crowds and competitiveness in every field and sectors of life. In India, there are some basic problems as compared to Western countries.
There is a lengthy bureaucratic procedure and red tap ism, which cannot be diluted completely despite granting them dual citizenship. NRIs are accustomed to work with easy and liberal procedure in their adopted countries. They will face numerous constraints in India. Therefore, the dual citizenship will not be healthy and encouraging for overseas citizens. There are few problems in India like Kashmir issue, communal clashes , law and order problems, terrorism , lockouts , union problems, labor problems and many more. Agreeing that we have get rid from this to a great extend and its very difficult to eradicate it completely. But it also remains as a dirt for our country.
The Diasporas are not accustomed to facing these challenges in their present countries. Thus NRIs cannot stay for a longer time in India. This not be the case about all but this is also a fact. There are instances where NRIs came to India for investments in various sections but failed to achieve their goals and went back.
NRIs today are keen to invest and start work in India. They have love for their mother land. However,the fact remains that they are keener to take dual citizenship as they see future in India. Their flow to India will dominate our interpreters and they may suffer. Our resources are not so sufficient to afford all the needs of the immigrating residents of India if they all come to settle here. Dual citizenship does not extend all the rights to the NRIs . They will not get political rights, which will fracture the solidarity of the Diaspora.
People who have voluntarily relinquished their Indian citizenship and have settled abroad have never contributed so much for India,.But now the situation is changing to a good season. We are getting more investments. Those who have never contributed anything for their mother land will be unnecessarily rewarded if dual citizenship is allowed. Excessive freedom for NRIs, presently living in different countries with different cultural backgrounds may affect our culture and may impact on our people and culture.
Majority of the NRIs are more leaned towards money and that may be the reason why they left our country. There are instances where NRIs who are well settled abroad with good business identified the benefits during their visit to Indian and took them along and thus misusing the freedom we gave to them.
The intention and reputation of certain NRIs are not known. It even pave way for increasing terrorism as it will become easy for the terrorist to enter our country as a foreigner by taking a dual citizenship. So, the security issues will become more. They may be misused by the terrorist outfits to be use as informers or spies which might result in serious security hazards..
Both sides have its own merits and demerits but the problem will be more if dual citizenship is allowed. So, if dual citizenship is implemented, it should be 'Handled with Care' so that there will not be any security hazards and any other problems.. We Indians have to really take care about it. Because we always beleive...
Aditi devo bhava...!!
