On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 8:16 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan <[email protected]> wrote: > Traveling anywhere today on an Indian passport is guaranteed to be > exciting - navigating visa appointments, embassy interviews, credit > worthiness tests and other required hurdles will keep anyone from > boredom. The reluctance of countries rich and poor, large and small to > open their doors to Indians is quite understandable. The numbers are > simply against India; with 1.2 billion people when an Indian is let > into one's country it's hard to be sure who exactly is being let in. > Is it someone with a college education and a stable income living in > the cities, or is it one of the vast majority of the wretchedly poor.
I've heard this is often quid-pro-quo as well. We make life fairly miserable for foreigners that want to work here, what with limited-term-visas, requirements of getting police stamps every so many months, etc. We supposedly have made life tough for visitors as well. I wouldn't go with this special passport business. First, it will create incentives to easily override whatever rules are created for the purpose, if indeed the passport gives easier entry abroad. (And if the rules are made really tight, most valid people will not get in, only those that "pay" or "bribe" will). This will eventually result in foreign countries refusing to grant easier visas to such passports as well. Second, it's a class segregation I don't agree with. We are what we are, collectively, and sadly, some of us will suffer for the deeds of the other few, but we are just as Indian, and I see no reason we should give anyone a jew stamp. > The population of Uttar Pradesh, sadly one of the least literate and > poorer Indian states is larger than Brazil; making it the fifth most > populous country in the world if it were an independent nation. Or for > that matter Bihar would be in the poorest 10% of countries if it were > an independent nation and there's more such examples to add to what > will surely be an unflattering list. [0] Yet, biharis and UP-ites seem to do very well everywhere, and Bihar is starting to turn economically better. > For a country which counts people as its largest bankable asset India > should see a lot of economic merit in enabling the free global > movement of its talented people. This I agree with. We should do away with ECNR (which is supposed to protect us from ourselves) and allow people to defect, leave, return etc. at will. We shouldn't though make it possible for those branded "talented" to be better mobile than others. What applies to one must apply to all. (Except those with parole violations etc. of course)
