It should not come as a shock that over a lakh of NRIs are renouncing their Indian citizenship every year with their numbers progressively growing. Considering the number, this is not a huge exit as the overseas Indian diaspora has a size of over three crore; and that 25 lakh Indians are going abroad for work, study or stay every year. Yet, this massive giving up of citizenship should be a matter of concern to us. While the maximum of permanent exits is to the United States, even Indians who have settled down in China have also opted to bid good bye to their motherland. India no longer instills a patriotic spirit in them.
Those who lived abroad should know that life here is claustrophobic. India in many respects is in the Stone Age. Change for India is evident too — in the massive arrival of cars and other vehicles, the shopping malls and branded products, and the high-class national highways. Some major airports have a classy look today. Lifestyles of the rich here match with those of the affluent in the developed world. Their mansions are a treat to the eye. The five-star circuit here offers one all that’s humanly possible. Yet, the Ambanis and the Adanis are fewer in number. The corrupt politicians and babus wallowing in ill-gotten wealth form only a small segment of the 1.35 billion population. Luxury here has a high price to pay. Not so even in the developed West or the glitzy cities like Dubai or Singapore. Almost everyone there gets a chance to feel free and enjoy life, while almost everyone here lives on a shoe-string budget. Laws take people round and round. This may also have to do with the set of ageing politicians with antiquated mindsets sitting pretty over our heads. They resist change.
Singapore was built to glory by a British-educated Lee Kuan Yew; Malaysia by doctor-turned administrator Mahathir Mohamad; Dubai by visionary leader Shaikh Mohammad. China lifted its fortunes sky-high with the forward-looking leadership of Deng Xiaoping. Leadership matters. Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundations of Independent India with great vision. In one go, dams sprang up to feed the soil and steel factories emerged to boost the cause of industrialization. India had its head up. Those were inspiring moments. The growth today is for a handful of the population; say, two per cent of the one billion plus. The rest are not starving, per se, due also to the subsidized rice scheme. Earnings, for most, are too low. Life is a daily struggle for existence.
