Moving forward on his four-year-old promise, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday announced that Indians living abroad would be granted voting rights before the end of UPA-II’s term. Having spelt out this definite timeframe for the first time, the PM prodded overseas Indians to return and join public life in India.
Inaugurating the eighth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet, Singh invited the 25-million strong overseas Indian community to ?actively? participate in accelerating the pace of India’s economic and social development.
He hoped that India would be able to attain a growth rate of 9-10%in a couple of years. Singh said he understands the ?legitimate desire? of Indians living abroad to ?exercise their franchise and to have a say in who governs India.?
?We are working on this issue and I sincerely hope that they will get a chance to vote by the time of the next regular general elections,? he said. Going a step further, he asked ?why more overseas Indians should not return home to join politics and public life as they are increasingly doing in business and academia?.
At the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet in 2006, Singh had announced his government’s intention to grant voting rights to Indians living abroad. The law ministry introduced a Bill to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 in the Rajya Sabha in the same year. But the legislation was stuck after a Parliamentary Standing Committee raised some questions.
Sources in the overseas indian affairs ministry said the idea was to give voting rights to Indian passport-holders living abroad. It would benefit both Indians working or studying abroad, and those who have permanently settled in foreign countries but still hold Indian passports. Officials said a system of postal ballots, or setting up polling stations in Indian missions abroad could be explored.
At present, those who live abroad for more than six months at a stretch are not qualified to be registered in India’s electoral rolls. Getting voting rights would also give overseas Indians a chance to contest elections.
The standing committee had felt that the amendment proposed by the government would end up creating a separate category of citizens, rather than conferring voting rights on Indians residing abroad.
It had opposed the idea of postal ballots or of setting up polling booths abroad, and proposed that NRIs should be physically present in their constituency where they had their vote.
The panel had also wanted the government to specifically mention that those residing abroad would not be able to contest for high offices like that of President or vice-president.
It had also wanted the Bill to specifically say that those living abroad, and who have not acquired the citizenship of any other country, shall be deemed to be resident in India.