It is a wrong notion to say 'dual citizen' -- there is no such thing; the Government of India has decided not to give dual citizenship. There is a danger in using such words casually. To provide dual citizenship we have to change the Constitution, amend the People's Representation Act, since such dual citizenship gives political rights. As it stands, OICs and PIO can stay here as much as they like, they can come and go at will, but they cannot vote.

When will it be possible to grant voting rights to Indians living abroad?

We have introduced a bill in Parliament to grant voting rights to Indian passport holders. We are in process of amending the People's Representation Act under which their names are enrolled. It has been approved by the standing committee and has been tabled before Parliament, but we could not pass it in this session. Once it has been passed, anyone working in say the Gulf or anywhere else can produce his passport and proof of where he works, and enrol himself in his original native state, and thus get the right to vote.

How do you review the work done so far?

I think three things have been done well. The first is that we have signed agreements with the Gulf countries to protect our labour. We have signed a social security agreement with the European countries. We have created various institutions for the NRIs, including the India Development Fund which is a single window available to the NRIs to make contributions to India. It helps them decide what projects to fund, and how to go about it and through it, they can send the money for the project of their choice without going through the Reserve Bank of India.

We are talking to many countries in the European Union to provide more employment opportunities for our manpower. Europe is aging and in need of a young working force, and we have that. Poland and some other East European nations are also talking to us on these lines.

We have concentrated on the India Development Fund. The committee for this will be announced soon; we want to make sure it is filled with well-known personalities and a capable executive officer. We will enrol known and credible NGOs in all states, and a nodal officer in each state. The project has an all-India canvas.

Let me give you an example. Say a New Jersey-based group collects money to build a school -- but they don't know how to go about it, who to send the money to, who to trust. Through the IDF, we will give them a reliable system, so they can build the sort of school they want, where they want to built it.

We will work through NGOs to prepare plans and a budget; we will send them the plans and the budget, and once they are ready to send the money, we will use our nodal officer in the particular state to oversee the work. Basically, the government will provide an in-between machinery to ensure that the work they want to do actually gets done.

We plan to have chapters in every state, and a roster of credible NGOs in each state. It is an ambitious project, but it is also a necessary one. A lot of NRIs wish to contribute to their homeland, but do not know how to go about it. That is why we thought of the IDF -- once it takes full shape, every NRI will be able to do something for his taluka, his village.

Image: A rousing moment at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi, at the 2007 edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi.

Also see: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2008

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