Pravasi Bharati Divas:an invention past its sell-by date

Pravasi Bharati Divas: an invention past its sell-by date


“The bear does the dancing and the gypsy takes the money.”
Russian proverb


We are told that attics were invented a long time ago, in, where else, Attica, the Greek region made famous in Socrates Plato time. Attics have a way of keeping secrets and springing surprises: old letters, clothes, promises made: all sorts of revealing blasts from the past. This recent hullabaloo in the Pravasi Bharati Divas melas, this globe-trotting Ministry of NRI Affairs carved out of the External Affairs rib, this varied feting and flouncing of selected ethnic Indians from the Diaspora – surprises. It’s as if we’ve flushed out a startled bat from the attic of our national consciousness. That the phenomenon paradoxically reeks of recent invention, as in something revisionist planted unconvincingly into the national psyche, is, of course, another matter. As a public relations exercise to reinforce Brand India, it serves to both flatter and deceive, rather like what actress Paget Brewster had in mind when she suggested: “Hot girls want you to call them smart. Smart girls want you to call them hot.”

What is puzzling though, is why, at a time when India’s economy is coursing along like a happy elephant, being compared favourably with the Chinese dragon, the 25 million ethnic Indians are being specially wooed? Where were the bulk of these people when we were down and out, pathetically appealing to their patriotism and begging for their dollars and expertise? Then, most of the Indian income tax exempted NRIs and their ethnic ilk were happy to read us unctuous and accented lectures from behind the smugness of their foreign abodes, nationalities and fat wallets. These same people, now that we’ve made good and on our way to doing better, want hosts of extraordinary economic concessions, not available to the resident or other, far more forthcoming foreigners. These include tax holidays for investment, property related special treatment, dual citizenship and successive governments are actually working out ways and means to give it to them!

I can, of course, understand the belated gratitude we feel for the unremitting flow of billions of dollars from the Gulf Indians. I know that tens of thousands of our formerly unsung compatriots account for perhaps the most stable sources of foreign exchange over the years. But the Gulf Indians are transient workers, with very few being offered citizenship in their host countries. And so, if, in their wisdom, they’ve taken on the advantages of third country citizenships, then, surely, it’s best of luck to them. As far as the mother country is concerned, why should we treat these people any differently than the foreigners they’ve chosen to become? Why can’t they queue up along with the rest of the world that is keen, at last, on India?

While it can be argued that offering dual citizenship is a civilised thing to do and is a mark of a self-confident nation, I wonder if the cap fits. The Briton axiomatically favours Britain wherever he may be. The American is a gung-ho, flag-waving specimen who is a wonder to behold. The Chinese are inscrutable as they set about ripping off the world’s technology for their duplicating machines. Even the Pakis are murderously efficient in their ISIing ways. The diasporic Indian however, suffering from the neo-colonial mark of Cain, is a wizard at ingratiation with no parallel. If this were not enough indictment, we need also to contend with the ever-present security issues in a jehadi infested world.

So, despite all the hamdardi of a polity determined to lay out the red carpet for the overseas Indian, it may be best to take another look at the baraati treatment being offered and proposed. The whole exercise may well be date-expired like many well-intentioned government initiatives. Romancing the Diaspora served us somewhat in the days when foreign exchange was a perpetual problem, but it makes little sense now. Consider the facts: in 1991, at the start of our liberalisation drive, the government was brought to its knees in a balance of payments crisis for owing $9.68 billion. We had to pawn our gold reserves and survive via an IMF loan. Early this month, in 2006, our current account deficit stood at $13 billion, for just half the year, representing 2.5% of current GDP, quite like the 3% of GDP it measured up to in 1991. In 2006, however, we have $143 billion in foreign exchange reserves compared to a mere $5.83 billion 15 years ago!

I’ve got nothing against handing out a few shawls and citations; nor against fine sounding speeches by various eminences, but it must be understood that in a resurgent India, these Pravasi Bharati Divases are well past their sell-by date.

(800 words)

By Gautam Mukherjee
CEO, Indus Overseas

Also published in The Pioneer www.dailypioneer.com Sunday, 15th January, 2006