A new Bill, which seeks to do away with the existing overseas citizen of India (OCI) card and the person of Indian origin (PIO) card, and replace them with a new overseas Indian card, is being opposed by a large section of Indian overseas, who have been enjoying the benefits of these cards for many years.
The Bill, dubbed amendment to Citizenship Act, has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha and is likely to come up before the Lok Sabha for passage in the current parliament session.
While a PIO card applicant has to be a person of Indian origin who is a citizen of any country, other than Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Afghanistan, China and Nepal; or a person who has held an Indian passport at any time or is the spouse of an Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin; the OCI card is for foreign nationals who were eligible to become a citizen of India on 26.01.1950 or was a citizen of India on or after that date.
"The idea of merging the PIO card and the OCI card will create more confusion rather than solving any problems. Members of the Indian diaspora, many of whom are OCI and PIO card-holders cannot understand the rationale behind the Indian government's move to suddenly change the nomenclature of the cards and introduce a new one. The OCI card scheme has drawn unprecedented emotional appeal and resulted in huge numbers signing up for it at about 250,000 a year. Applicants have to pay around $ 300 per card and it helps them to connect emotionally to their country of origin," says Munish Gupta, co-ordinator of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) International.
The organisation has officially taken the stand that while Indians overseas had deeply appreciated the gesture of the government of India to create the much-needed emotional engagement with the diaspora through the OCI/PIO cards, by doing away with them they will now feel a deep sense of humiliation.
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