Globally-mobile Indians also include labourers who go to middle east/SE Asia. Creating a two-tier passport system would concretise class/caste system. If you wear suits, have credit cards, and speak english and work for mncs, one queue; if you look like a construction worker, go to the back of the line.
It is bad and unworkable at many levels. When I lived in singapore and malaysia imposed stringent visa rules for indians living in singapore, some indians asked for exemption for indians who were singapore PRs, or who had amex gold cards (I'm not kidding). I don't see such a system fly; US wanted to do it, a so-called "trusted traveller" system, but they realised it was impossible to administer in a country that places a premium on equality of all citizens. For indian passports to be respected more, india will have to improve its standing first. Salil Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: Sidin Vadukut <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:19:08 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [silk] India: global mobility > -----Original Message----- > From: Srini RamaKrishnan <[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])> > Sender: [email protected] > (mailto:[email protected]) > Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:46:47 > To: <[email protected] (mailto:[email protected])> > Reply-To: [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) > Subject: [silk] India: global mobility > > Assuming there is a special class of Indian passport [1], one where > the recipient is vetted to be of first or second world standards in > education, income, and other desirables, and comes with > pre-negotiated visa waivers with most countries - it would enable a > more mobile class of Indian who can travel and be employed in other > countries, but be off the host country's books in terms of visas and > permanent residencies. Given the incentive to convert nationality or > residency is greatly reduced for this new mobile Indian it helps India > retain its talent too. > > How much of this boils down to the reputation other countries have of our passport verification and issuing process? I remember talking about this to a Republic of Ireland government investment/tourism of some kind a few years ago, who said that they were well aware of how archaic the passport issuing mechanism in India was. As long as you can buy a new passport for Rs 35,000 or so in Delhi, which was the rate when I last checked, the document is a certificate of nothing at all. (Now Ireland also lets in Indian passports with Schengens or UK visas in them.) My experiences with Visa On Arrival have been mixed. Sri Lanka and Malaysia were good. Turkey was absolutely terrible. Even the guys at the airport said that if I ever were to come back I should just get a visa the usual way before leaving. Perhaps there are elements of racism and such like. But to be told, in Turkey, that Indian passport were inspected more closely than Iraqi ones was… a bit much IMHO.
