On January 9, the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa, the federal government will observe the 17th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The day is supposed to have fun the contributions of India’s diaspora. The theme for this 12 months’s occasion is, “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal”.

As in earlier PBDs, pravasi women and men might be recognised for his or her contributions to the nation. However, the glitz and glamour of the occasion shouldn’t blinker us in the direction of uncomfortable points, together with these associated to the authorized standing of Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs).

Originally conceptualised in 2003 by the then NDA authorities led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the OCI scheme was envisaged as a dual-citizenship undertaking: OCIs would take pleasure in all rights as regular residents besides the proper to carry public workplace and forged their vote. The Vajpayee authorities launched the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2003 in Parliament. The assertion accompanying the Bill, that was handed by Parliament in December that 12 months clearly said that it was meant to offer twin citizenship to individuals of Indian origin from sure international locations. It was a progressive transfer by a assured nation to recognise and utilise the expertise and assets of its sizeable diaspora who held international citizenships; it was additionally in step with world practices.

Nearly twenty years later, the Union Home Ministry is downgrading the OCI scheme from dual-citizenship to nearly a “residency permit” scheme. The ministry’s statements in circulars and courts declaring that OCIs are usually not Indian residents and that they’d not take pleasure in any basic rights below the Indian Constitution have been notably disheartening.

Today, there’s appreciable authorized confusion concerning the standing of OCIs. Can they apply sure professions like journalism with out prior authorities permission? Do contributions by OCIs residing in India to charities/colleges violate the nation’s legal guidelines? During the pandemic, resident OCIs had to make sure their donations went solely to NGOs that had FCRA clearance. As a outcome, many native degree initiatives couldn’t be supported with their financial contributions.

Very typically OCIs have been confronted with remarks, together with at courts, that we’re foreigners in India. Unlike a number of different international locations, the Indian Constitution doesn’t have exhaustive provisions on citizenship. It leaves it to Parliament to control the proper of citizenship by legislation. The Citizenship Act, 1955 was enacted to fulfil this mandate. It is that this legislation that was amended in 2003 to create a brand new class of residents referred to as OCIs.

Given the Parliament’s aware resolution to put the OCI scheme within the Citizenship Act, it’s unlucky the federal government is now claiming that OCIs are usually not even residents.

It is true that Section 9 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 states that Indians will lose their citizenship on taking on international citizenship. But how are we to make sense of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003 which created OCIs as a brand new class of residents through the exact same legislation regardless of such folks holding international citizenship? The solely logical and authorized option to now perceive Section 9 is to simply accept that the amendments of 2003 successfully create an exception for OCIs from sure international locations. There is not any different option to reconcile and uphold the daring imaginative and prescient of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003. Otherwise, we open the door to a situation the place the Citizenship Act may be amended to recognise lessons of individuals who will merely take pleasure in residency rights with none basic or political rights. Such an interpretation may have catastrophic penalties for an expansive concept of Indian citizenship.

Recently, the Government of India introduced that India’s Presidency of G20 might be grounded within the ideas of “Vasudaiva kutumbakam” whereby the complete world is taken into account as one household. Hopefully such political homilies are mirrored in the best way the federal government thinks concerning the concept of citizenship in relation to the more and more cell Indian diaspora. Clearly, an elemental query is whether or not it’s correct to cancel the citizenship of individuals born within the nation, and who’ve continued engagement with it, merely as a result of they’ve acquired international citizenship. No different progressive democracy does that in the present day, although most international locations had related legal guidelines when India enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955.

India jurisprudence itself has developed since then, a progress exemplified by the Kesavananda Bharati case, which clarified the elemental options of the Constitution. It is probably time for India to relook at citizenship legal guidelines to allow its folks on this globalised setting.

In a current deal with, Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested Chief Secretaries of states and Union Territories to deal with high quality of service over outdated legal guidelines and guidelines, to attain the objective of creating India a developed nation by 2047. Realising the essence of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 is within the spirit of the PM’s directive.

The Overseas Citizens of India are extremely pleased with their dwelling nation and have been on the forefront of supporting it. On the day when pravasi Indians from throughout the globe are being felicitated for bringing glory — be it by means of private achievements or serving to the nation in immeasurable methods — recognising OCIs as residents of India each in spirit and legally might be a real option to honour the diaspora’s contributions.

The author is a lawyer and Overseas Citizen of India