A Note to NRIs who want to Vote

Some NRIs want to vote in Indian elections and the government is going to make it possible for them to do so. (?@#)

On 8th January 2009, at the annual NRI extravaganza (which is partly tax-payer funded) the Prime Minister of India said:

"I recognise 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”.

I have some problems with this.

1. If a person does not live in India, how can that person participate in a process that decides who will govern me here in India? It seems unfair to me.
   
   
2. An exercise of one’s franchise comes with consequences.
   * If a person is not living in the country, he/she does not have to bear the consequences of his/her vote.
   * If a person does not bear the consequences of his/her vote – why should they be given the privilege of a vote?
   Note: Owning property in India does not bestow extra rights on a person under the representation of people’s act. In other words, a bank account or house does not entitle anybody in India to a vote.
   
   
3. Voting is not an exercise in jingoism. Exercising one’s franchise is serious business. It’s about electing a representative who is responsible for delivering on governance. If somebody needs to find an armband that proves their ethnicity, they need to look elsewhere and not on a voter’s registration list.
   
   
4. If you eat the cake – you won’t have it any more.
   An Indian has every right to settle in any country that will have him as a resident. One does not and should not lose his/her citizenship for that. They are also welcome to give up their citizenship.
   I have no issues even if someone was educated on government subsidies in premier institutions such as IIT or AIIMS and then took the first plane abroad. Good for them. They have every democratic right to pursue a path that they chose for themselves. We have enough and more people to make up for the folks who leave for greener pastures. Family and friends will miss NRIs. Not the country. Nobody is that indispensable.
   Indian democracy affects everyday life. Participation in Indian democracy is not about pressing a button once every five years.
   
   
5. There is an entire ministry that is dedicated to the affairs of NRIs and Persons of Indian origin. This is, in my opinion, adequate representation. NRIs should do whatever is possible either individually or collectively to increase the scope, power, authority and efficiency of the Ministry of NRI affairs.
   Don't ask for a seat in parliament. If you want voting right, you will have to show up at the booth like the rest of us.
   

Here is my solution:

Why should an NRI be any different to a migrant worker within India? An NRI needs to treat an election-day like an other migrant worker in India

•  They need to comply with all the provisions of the Representation of People’s act. (citizenship, qualification to vote, age etc)
• They need to reach the constituency in which their names figures on the voting list. Or they need to pre-register their name on the Voter’s list with all required documentation.
• On voting day - they need to walk into the appropriate polling booth and show the appropriate Identity card (none of which are green) and vote for a candidate of their choice. 
  

Azadi! Azadi! - Democracy, the Indian Army and Kashmir

I came across this paragraph in the article titled "Is Democracy Melting?" by Arundhati Roy.

The war in the Kashmir valley is almost 20 years old now, and has claimed about 70,000 lives. Tens of thousands have been tortured, several thousand have "disappeared," women have been raped, tens of thousands widowed. Half a million Indian troops patrol the Kashmir valley, making it the most militarized zone in the world. (The United States had about 165,000 active-duty troops in Iraq at the height of its occupation.) The Indian Army now claims that it has, for the most part, crushed militancy in Kashmir. Perhaps that's true. But does military domination mean victory? 

The comparison with Iraq is a cruel reality. What will it take for the the "democratic" government in India to come good on it's commitment to the United Nations to conduct a plebiscite in Kashmir?

The media as usual is silent about key issues that affect Kashmir. This includes and is not limited to the overwhelming presence of the military.

On a relevant side note, as India embarks in it's next phase of "auctioning" of the country's assets, Kashmir could possibly serve as the distraction that the private sector needs before digging their hands into what has been built using common property resources and tax payer money.

The richest Indian cabinet just got a little richer

Nandan Nilekani was given a cabinet rank yesterday. His portfolio - the National ID project.

Nandan Nilekani has increased the average/per-capita wealth of the cabinet. According to the National Election Watch, cabinet was already the richest cabinet in Indian history. They just got a little richer.

This cabinet is probably the most unrepresentative cabinet in Indian history. It has become a club of the wealthy. More than anything, it is representative of nepotism and the inequitable distribution of wealth in this country. We cannot any more afford to be in denial that we are a polyarchy.
You can read more about polyarchy here.

When there is no concept of Social Security in the country, why have a "social security number"? I have a PAN Card, Ration Card, Election Card, Driver's License and Passport. Why do I need to be identified any further? There are over 800 million people living on less than a dollar a day in India. I cannot see how the diversion of resources to this grand scheme is going to address real issues (food, water, education, healthcare etc) in any way. It will allow the government and private sector participants in the scheme to monitor a lot of what the common man does. It will also pave the way for rampant identity theft.

Nilekani's new role is an eerie reminder of Larry Ellison's grand scheme after 9/11 to pull in some revenue for Oracle through a National ID scheme in the US. This scheme, like many other, was riding on a wave of fear created in the American media about terrorists, terrorism, WMDs and Islamophobia.

The current government's flirtatious overtures to the corporate sector are ominous. It is apparent that we will get a CII budget and key sectors that affect the poor might be privatized in the next five years. Social Security - even if it is just a number, is the best excuse that the government will have to continue to adopt the privatization model.

While the Indian cabinet gets richer, 800 million Indians who subsist on below a dollar day will get poorer because they cannot be "identified". At the same time, the government will start tracking other citizens who have been “identified”.

On a related note, many people (like me) who condemn violence but believe that violence has roots in oppression and a lack of development will be labeled as "maoist sympathizers". I find it hard to believe that 1000s of people who have less food then what was available to their peers during the Bengal famine would be interested in the philosophy of Chairman Mao and his little red book. They are more likely to go to any extent to get food and a glass of water for their families. Unfortunately, this includes armed struggle. While these rotten egg realities hit the fan, we invite mining companies to these very same districts and call the poor “insurgents”. Leaders who do not hesitate to develop IT platforms for these companies get “cabinet rank”.