Open letter to GoI

[PIO]

A letter I wanted to share with you all ... An open letter to the Government of India concerning Dual Citizenship:

Every diligent and reasonable person who has studied the new measures contained in the yet-to-be-implemented Overseas Citizenship of India initiative (OCI) agrees that there is no Dual Citizenship. There can be no doubt. OCI is a new visa class that is marginally better to, but in essence not much different from the existing PIO card. In fact some refer to the new measures as the "U Visa class" - because it is really little more than a visa.

Ministers, government officials, the media, even the PM - in their speeches and the highest official papers, continue to refer to OCI as Dual Citizenship.

Dual citizenship has a very specific and unambiguous meaning.

Main Entry: dual citizenship
Function: noun
: the status of an individual who is a citizen of two or more nations
Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This is directly contradicted in this statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs:

The Constitution of India does not allow holding Indian citizenship and citizenship of a foreign country simultaneously. Based on the recommendation of the High Level committee on Indian Diaspora, the Government of India decided to grant Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) commonly known as ‘Dual Citizenship’.
/oci-card/

This confusion has meant that many of the 4,000 people who have already applied for the OCI, and the many that will do so once it becomes operational, think they are getting Dual Citizenship.

However the OCI offers no rights or privileges of citizenship. We are being openly misled by bureaucrats, ministers, and the media (reporting on official statements). Surely this is not right.

Even when we do get this much delayed and watered-down "U visa class", the next small step in the right direction, we continue to ask for our original simple request. Dual Citizenship.

GoI, if you are serious about development in India, and the role of Diaspora, please do not continue this half-truth, and implement a full Dual Citizenship of India.

I await your response.

Yours sincerely,


A concerned overseas Indian

[india2007]

USA Does not allow dual citizenship after you become a US national - so does this mean that if India "allows" dual citizenship - all of us will have to loose US citizenship to be eligible?

May be the loop hole of "U class" visa supports dual citizen ship - the only thing u are missing is right to vote, and hold public offices

[PIO]

US does allow dual citizenship (my friend has tri citizenship - US, French and Australian!) They just say that if you are in Egypt and are a Egypt+US dual citizen, they may find it difficult to offer consular assistance in Jail for e.g. as Egypt will say you are Egyptian.

Also if you hold an elected position in a foreign country they may revoke citizenship - but I don't know when this was done.

Otherwise it is fine, and there must be millions of Duals in US.

[Jagbag]

I agree with PIO - it is a deliberate bureaucratic wild goose chase to hoodwink NRIs to think the Government is doing them a big favour by giving dual citizenship.

The problem with Indian bureaucracy is that it presupposes the individuals aspirations without any consultation whatsoever and makes it into law- then when you fight it- they want to change the rules a little bit to placate.

Another concerned overseas Indian

[helloindia]

Daft Rules

India as we all know it is politically and possibly administratively a bundle of contradictions.
I too think that the only real couple of benefits of the OCI visa is its life long validity and the fact that the re-registration process afforded to PIOs and other foreigners is unnecessary.
Yet if one is given dual nationality, one should be given all rights of indians (particularly the right to vote), including that of mobility and any activity / job just like Indian nationals.
Presently the scheme does not allow for mountaineering, missionary and research work....all of which I can think of as STUPID !!!!! . E.g.: As regards research work - how can a NRI open a dept. of research for anything to encourage young talented indians if his job is basically considered 'illegal' OR how can someone even talk / preach about their faith - will this be classed as missionary work? And OCI visa holders don't even bother to book yourselves for even a short trek over a few mountains as advertised by some tourist boards in India. This is illegal!
Talk about crazy policies or ill thought of rules
Jai Hind !!!!

[tamtom]

Not only is true dual citizenship not supported, there are even problems keeping SOLE citizenship of India for Indian children born in the US!

The problem comes when such a child tries to travel abroad. The US government will insist that the child get a US passport even if he or she already has an Indian passport. But this will make the child lose Indian citizenship. This leads to the absurd situation that certain Indian citizens cannot travel to India without losing Indian citizenship!

Tamtom