Why should an NRI visit India just to cast his vote

An NRI is often pilloried for running away from the country instead of serving it. Implicit in the criticism is his role in the festering problem of brain drain and accentuating it. But the government itself takes a kinder view of his supposed abdication of his duties as citizen. It allows him to hold bank accounts in India denominated both in Indian rupees as well as in a hard foreign currency besides allowing him to purchase any property including immovable anywhere in India except Jammu and Kashmir which in any case is out of bounds for residents of other states in India.

Time to get ready for polls. Reuters

There are two kinds of NRIs---those still holding the Indian passport and those who hold a foreign passport which effectively means they have severed their umbilical chords with the country, as it were. Those holding Indian passports are allowed to vote in Indian elections for the simple reason they are very much citizens of India. The Indian government allows Indians holding foreign passports of select countries to hold dual passports so that they can enter and exit both the countries at will without having to bother about visas. But having renounced their Indian citizenship they are not allowed to vote in India. Be that as it may.

The Election Commission of India (EC) in fact encourages NRIs holding Indian passports to register online through its website so that they can exercise their franchises from time to time. But it almost in the same breath cautions them that they will have to make a pilgrimage, so to speak, to India whenever election takes place so that they can vote. For, the website makes it clear that they cannot vote through post or at Indian missions abroad nor is there any online voting facility available for them.

It is urged that the Election Commission, in league with the Ministry of External Affairs, immediately swing into action and allow NRIs with Indian passports to vote at Indian missions abroad lest their right to vote is rendered meaningless if not farcical. For, it will not just be economical and otherwise feasible for an NRI to visit India just to cast his vote each time there is a general or state election. The problem would be compounded if he has a large family with each one imbued with a nationalistic spirit to vote.

The EC is right in denying them online voting facility given the fact that such a dispensation is simply not in place. Perhaps it would be in place should Nandan Nilkeni and his dedicated team design robust and comprehensive software that can withstand tremendous and simultaneous pressure exerted on it a la the IRCTC software that now has the capability to take on around 10,000 bookings/cancellations simultaneously. The point is the EC simply cannot put in place a dispensation catering exclusively to NRIs. They will therefore have to bide their time along with the rooted-in-India net savvy citizens.

Postal ballot, as it is, is permitted only for government servants on the move and operates with ample safeguards. It is bristles with dangers of bogus and multiple voting if extended across the board to everyone including the NRIs besides throwing the election process pell-mell.

In the event, the only meaningful option available to the EC is to permit our NRI brethren to vote at Indian missions abroad. Of course there is no guarantee that NRIs will make a beeline to Indian consulates abroad on the election day to cast their franchise given the fact that while extension of a passport that has expired is a matter of survival for them with the grim prospect of being thrown away from the foreign country besides being unwelcome back home thus impelling them to rush to the nearest Indian consulate, there is no such urgency or importance attached to voting especially when considerable distance separates an NRI's place of residence and the nearest Indian consulate. Yet, the EC must permit it lest its exhortation to NRIs to register themselves is rendered meaningless if not farcical. No law or measure must be introduced that contains seeds of withering away and becoming a butt of ridicule or joke in the absence of a credible implementation mechanism.

Of course, in Indian consulates abroad there cannot be electronic voting machines because voters' addresses back home would warrant making available EVMs of all the constituencies. Necessarily therefore the whole exercise will have to be handled manually with constituencies where they can vote discerned from the identify card provided by the Election Commission which too must be produced along with the passport for being eligible to vote. The consulate officials will then download the ballot paper from the EC's website. Admittedly, the process would be arduous, demanding and has to be tinker-proof but gone through nevertheless given the very large number of Indian passport holders abroad to whom right to vote cannot be denied.

Otherwise, an NRI's right to vote won't be worth the paper it is written on. Visit to India for the nonce is too much to expect not even when his near and dear one is contesting the election because the expenditure and inconvenience involved is too much. In short, the existing dispensation would beckon an NRI to the polling booth only if he happens to be in India through happenstance -- holiday, wedding in the family, purchase of property etc.