PM keeps promise, Citizenship Bill passed to benefit NRIs

A bill to amend the Citizenship Act, one of the six items on which government had issued ordinances, was on Monday passed by the Lok Sabha.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2015 seeks to remove disparity between Persons of Indian Origin cardholders and Overseas Citizens of India cardholders.

Intervening in the debate preceding passage of the bill, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said ordinance was promulgated to amend the Citizenship Act as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a commitment in the United States and Australia that the two cards will be merged before January 9, the centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi's return to India from South Africa.

A bill was introduced in ther Lok Sabha in the previous session but it could be passed, Singh said defending the ordinance.

Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju made it clear that India does not have the concept of 'dual citizenship' though most of the countries are veering towards that concept. He said the PIO and OCI cardholders are "close to citizenship status". He clarified that the amendment bill does not deal with the issue of refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh and a task force set up in September last is looking into the issue. He said people who apply for Indian citizenship will now be allowed a 30-day break if they have to leave India for some time and their absence from the country will not affect their application for citizenship.

The House also passed the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill. It was passed by Rajya Sabha earlier. It was brought to the Lok Sabha to correct a patent error in the year -- from 2014 to 2015.

Participating in the discussion, N K Premachandran of the RSP opposed the decision of the government to adopt the ordinance route to amend the Citizenship Act.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sanjay Jaiswal said members of the previous government would not be able to appreciate the fact that the words of prime minister were sacrosanct and needed to be respected and honoured.

The National Democratic Allaince government, he added, did the right thing by merging the PIO and OCI cards which was greatly welcomed by the overseas Indian community. M I Shanavas of the Congress said the government should have waited for regular session of Parliament instead of opting for ordinance route to change the statute.

Questioning the practice of the executive deciding on what should be the law, Biju Janata Dal member Bhartruhari Mahtab said his party was opposed to promulgation of ordinance. "It is a reflection of colonial mindset," he said, adding the practice prevails in countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Jayadev Galla of the Telugu Desam Party made a case for dual citizenship, saying several countries permit that and the government should accept the long-standing demand of the NRIs.

Others who participated in the discussion were Ratna De of the Trinamool Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi A P Jithender Reddy and A Sampath of the Communist Party of India-Marxist.