The 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD2014) will be held from January 7-9, 2014 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, India. The theme of PBD2014 is "Engaging Diaspora: Connecting Across Generations".
This is the best platform to address issue of "dual citizenship". It was at a NRI convention that the former BJP PM Vajpayee assured of dual citizenship that eventually led to the introduction of Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card, still in existence, and then came the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) card. The dual citizenship has come up at earlier DBD but no categorical answer from Indian government. A bill in the Rajya Sabha has been passed which paves "the way for registration of Overseas Indian Cardholders (OIC) instead of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) and seeking to bring within the scope of citizenship a person "who is ordinarily a resident" instead of the person who has been residing in India for a specified period.However, no person who has been a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh or any other country as decided by the government, will be eligible for registration as an OIC under the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2011." The amendments are "required due to certain lacunae that were noticed during its implementation and review of provisions relating to OCI". I think the Goa government must made a special representation regarding Goans who are in Goa with Portuguese passports. Maybe it will be highlighted, though the centre government is aware. It's the best time to have the answer then let the issue hang fire. Eugene
