OCI general question

[canindo]

Harry,

The OCI gives you the right to work, and live in India for you and your family and grown up children.

It also allows you to get your Indian passport back if you have stayed in India for some time.

As for your statement ,of joining the armed forces if you want to-well I am sure if the establishment wants to use you,they can bend any rule.

The problem for India is that its documents are not as secure as you think. We have 1.3 billion people and a porous border on all sides that are applicable. Further, visitors from pakisthan for example who come on valid visas are not going back and are claiming (in time) to be Indian citizens. Some of them may have other intentions.

Now as for emotions-whether you have any other countries passport-on the road if you look Indian the first thing anyone will say including yourself is that you are Indian. You do not need a dual citizenship for you to be accepted as an Indian by the people even if they are right wing or left wing or middle.

As for deceiving the people-the indian government via its embassy has clearly told the people in the beginning that what they are getting via the OCI is not dual citizenship.

I think in the end it is better for us to wait and not get emotional about India's first step into this kind of area. In the long run things might change.

In the meantime, irrespective of all the new allegiances you might take, remember you are made Indian.

 

[harry2005]

It also allows you to get your Indian passport back if you have stayed in India for some time.

Yes, but you have to renounce your foreign citizenship. That's no deal at all. Idea is to keep both.

Now as for emotions-whether you have any other countries passport-on the road if you look Indian the first thing anyone will say including yourself is that you are Indian. You do not need a dual citizenship for you to be accepted as an Indian by the people even if they are right wing or left wing or middle.

Yes. But legality of your status still matters. You are at the mercy of people in power unless you have a constitutionally protected status.

As for deceiving the people-the indian government via its embassy has clearly told the people in the beginning that what they are getting via the OCI is not dual citizenship.

When Vajpayee govt first introduced it, the promise was that you get to keep your Indian citizenship and passport when you become a citizen of a foreign country (don't have the link handy, will dig up later).Six years later, we ended up with OCI. After foreign govts and embassies got thoroughly confused with the duality of OCI and started imposing restrictions on their citizens with OCI, then only Indian govt issued some clarification. They were never open and honest about it. Even now, they refer to this as dual citizenship knowing full well that its not. To obtain OCI, there is a condition that 'host country must allow dual citizenship in some form or the other'. Tell me whats the reason for this condition? Afterall, OCI is not a dual citizenship, its nothing but PIO card without registration requirement.

I think in the end it is better for us to wait and not get emotional about India's first step into this kind of area. In the long run things might change.

I would hope so. Dual citizenship is important for a developing nation like India for many reasons. There are some countries that say ' you know what? we don't really care what other citizenships/oaths you take, as far as we are concerned, you are one of us no matter what'. Now, thats something that commands loyalty. Indian administration really needs to rethink this.

In the meantime, irrespective of all the new allegiances you might take, remember you are made Indian.

There is no arguing that. Once Indian, always Indian.

 

[canindo]

The reason many people call OCI dual citizenship is not because it actually is dual citizenship,but it is close.

In this they are doing a disservice to you harry because you have taken the literal meaning of dual citizenship and thought OCI was dual citizenship.

As for indian leader vajpayee promising dual citizenship, I agree the pm should have checked with his legal team with regard to consititution as to whether it would allow dual citizenship before promising something he or his government can deliver.

So for right now, we have OCI perhaps nothing will better???

As for emotions, I have always found people who take foreign passports start getting emotions for their motherland only after they get foreign passports. Why is that harry?

You know, if this is the case we should give all our 1.3 billion foreign passports so that their emotion to serve the country will be better and their unity will be greater and not just confined to cricket matches and pakisthan bashing.

But realistically your view that India needs dual citizenship to develop its economy or itself is not true. It needs good management, more government deregulation and people who have self respect and nationalism.

Let us wait and watch what happens in the OCI program. Maybe more features will be added to it.