Dual citizenship a hit among the PIOs
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 20 July 2010, 22:03 IST   |    17 Comments
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Dual citizenship a hit among the PIOs
Mumbai: More than a million foreign nationals have acquired the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) since the government decided to grant dual citizenship to the People of Indian Origin on December 2005. By the end of March 2010, the government issued 5,73,324 dual citizenships in 91 countries, reports Karthikeya from The Economic Times. Nearly half of these were American citizens followed by British, Canadians and Australians. Government passed the Bill in 2003 to woo the rich and influential Indian diaspora across the globe. The OCI, popularly known as 'dual citizenship', is granted to persons who migrated from India and acquired citizenship of a foreign country other than Pakistan and Bangladesh. The primary benefit of having an OCI status is that the holder gets a lifelong visa to visit India and stay as long as he wants. Second, unlike other foreign visitors, he does not need to register with local police on arrival. But, it's also a misnomer to assume that OCI grants any real "citizenship". It does not give the PIO a right to vote or contest elections in India. He also cannot hold constitutional posts or buy agricultural land in the country. Recently, the scheme was in news when Nobel laureate V S Naipaul, whose ancestors belonged to UP's Gorakhpur, was given a hard time by overzealous officials in London when he applied for the card. Naipaul was asked to provide documents to prove that his ancestors indeed lived in India.

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