Please indulge me as I wish to put across my views on the upcoming Bhumiputra Bill which an elected representative of the newly formed government said would be introduced in the first session of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
I am no lawyer and this is a legal matter. Some countries allow a foreigner to become a citizen of another country if that person is born in the country which will bestow citizenship on him or her. Now with the Bhumiputra Bill we are not talking about citizenship but giving rights to people from other states in India who have moved to Goa - giving them recognition as sons of the soil. Is this common in other states in India or is Goa going to be the first in India? Is this even legal? The problem is how long does a person have to be living in Goa before he is recognized as a son of the soil? Is this time frame based on some kind of a scientific principle or is it arbitrary? And the people who have been living in Goa, have they been living on land legally or illegally? If illegally what do we tell the people who have legally bought land and houses and who are Goan or have come from outside the state? I am simply thinking aloud and ask other readers on Facebook to comment on this hot potato. Fortunately, one of the Elected MLAs will (we need to draw the distinction with a Bought MLA in Indian politics nowadays) be able to throw some legal light on this issue unlike yours truly. I wish only to introduce this topic to be discussed threadbare in the public domain. I am not competent to do it and so I invite lawyers to a round table discussion on this controversial and somewhat volatile topic of discussion.
