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. 
  

Thinking Out Loud on Non Resident Whiners ( and a rant)

It's funny how folks get educated in India on Tax payer subsidies and go abroad and complain about India and it's socialist policies.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! and almost every other Fortune 500 company in the sates has been built with intellectual contributions from Indians educated in IITs, RECs and other government funded institutions.(Read as Tax Payer money). If you were brought up in India, almost every home cooked meal you had as a child was cooked on subsidized LPG.

This is not an argument on brain drain. Indians are welcome to go and work in any country of their choice. We have enough and more talent from where they came from. Except by family and friends, they will not be missed.

I too have many friends and close family working abroad who I miss dearly. The point is, I might miss them, the country doesn't . We can, as the saying goes, afford to spread the love.

What I do not understand is why a few people of Indian origin living abroad turnaround and say that our system sucks. I concede, socialist ideologies are like capitalist ideologies. They are both imperfect and unfair.

They (the few I refer to above) forget that they are a product of the Indian socialist system. They are welcome to live in New Jersey or Fremont or any place under the star spangled banner and support American occupation and war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine. They can continue to clap for the cause of genocide and disaster capitalism.  What irritates me is when they turn around and say that they did not benefit from socialism. They would not be where they are without many of the socialist policies that India has had in the last 60 years. 

• They will complain that "Indians" just don't get the concept of "copyright" and "ownership" but they will be transferring and copying Indian classical music in Gigabytes.
• They will claim that Hinduism needs a revival and is threatened by "other" religions while heating their beef burgers in the microwave. 
• They will call you a marxist, socialist or naxalite if you point out that they are as much a hypocrite as you are. (They use labels on resident Indians like a receptionist would use post-it notes).
  
• They complain about the "filth" in India. They readily forget that they pollute 500 times more than the average Indian.
  

I have no issues with any of them as long as they do not bring their political ideas on capitalism and shove it down my throat in the name of the Hindu religion.

1. If you suffer from an identity crisis...deal with it. Don't take it out on me. 
2. If you suffer from a sense of superiority...look a little more closely and you will realise that it is rooted in your own misplaced feelings of inferiority. 
3. If you think India is a big heap of problems...don't tell me you want to change things from "outside the system".