Ajit Kang

India has launched a program granting citizenship and land ownership rights for an estimated 25 million Indians living abroad.

But the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) scheme, which does not offer the rights to vote and be voted into public office, has received lukewarm reaction from the Indo-Canadian community in British Columbia.

“It doesn’t make sense. Gaining back citizenship is of no use if one cannot vote,” Ajit Kang, president of the Indian Overseas Congress, told The Asian Pacific Post.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh formally launched the overseas citizenship program at the annual convention of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) held at the southern city of Hyderabad last Jan 7.

The Surrey-based Kang said: “Young people from abroad want to go home, run for public office and play honest politics.”

Kang also noted that the OCI program does not allow Indians abroad to buy agricultural lands.

“We want the government to reconsider.”

New York teacher Madhu Kale was also disappointed that voting rights have not been excluded from the scheme.

“We were looking forward to it, to have a say in the democratic process in the country,” Kale told the BBC.

India has received some 8,000 applications for these overseas citizenships.

“We expect around 50,000 more applicants for overseas Indian citizenship,” Minister of State for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes said in a news conference.

The Indian government also launched an integrated electronic remittance gateway to simplify the transfer of money to India from anywhere in the world.

There has been a big increase in remittances from Indians abroad-from US$14 billion (C$16 billion) in 2001 to more than US$20 billion (C$23 billion) in 2005.

These moves are meant to strengthen India’s ties with its expatriates.

The government would like non-resident Indians to emulate overseas Chinese who have invested heavily in the country of their origin.