Letters to the Editor: Why are so many people giving up Indian citizenship?

Indians giving up citizenship

A record 1,63,370 Indian nationals renounced their citizenship in 2021, the highest in the past five years, according to government data. Over 78,000 of these Indians acquired US citizenship, the government told Lok Sabha. Since 2014, when the Narendra Modi government came to power, more than 900,000 Indians have given up citizenship. The emigration of such large number of Indians raises several questions.

If PM Modi and his ministers are to be believed, everything is fine in India, nobody is hungry, there is no communal strife, the economy is growing leaps and bounds and doing business was never as easy as it is now. Well, then why are well-off Indians moving out in hordes?

If India is progressing like it never did in the last 70 years, this trend must have been the opposite with NRIs giving up foreign citizenships and coming back to India. But as it comes out, even the government’s favourite actor is a Canadian citizen! Meanwhile, MoS for Home Nityanand Rai told Parliament in a written reply that “individuals renounced Indian citizenship for reasons personal to them”. Really? -Salil Deshpande, Mumbai

Bar, bar bolenge

The Delhi High Court’s gag order to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’Souza in Union minister Smriti Irani’s Goa cafe case seems to be hurried and overlooking various facts. The court also asked them to take down tweets and other social media posts on allegations levelled against the minister and her daughter, terming them “bogus with malicious intent”.

One wonders if the honourable judge watched the video of Silly Souls café review by a Youtuber. If yes, what conclusion did she draw? Also, an investigation by The Indian Express shows that Eightall Food and Beverages LLP, that has investments from the Iranis (not Smriti Irani, though) mentions its “principal place of business” as: H No. 452, Ground Floor, BoutaWaddo, Assagao, North Goa, which is also the address of Silly Souls Café and Bar. Interesting, no? -Anwarul Haq, Patna

Rishi Sunak and lessons for Hindu India

Indians are ecstatic about Rishi Sunak, a British Hindu with roots in India, standing a realistic chance of becoming the next British prime minister. As an MP, Sunak took his oath on the Bhagvad Gita.

Yet, no opposition leader, or his party’s own competitors, or even the common voters in the Christian Britain have raised the issue of his religion. Indians have every right to be jubilant at Sunak’s rise, but they should also look inwards, at the state of their own polity and democracy.

Isn’t there an unabating rise of Hindutva and along with it the increasing persecution of the minorities, especially Muslims and Christians, in India? In the midst of liberal Western democracies, among which India pretends to be a peer, doesn’t today’s India pop out as a jarring aberration? -Prakash M, Bengaluru