The Hindu Business Line : Special session for Gulf NRIs at Pravasi meet

GULF NRIs are hoping to press through with a host of demands including special ID cards for NRIs, overseas voting rights and better investment and educational facilities, at the forthcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, which opens in Delhi on January 9.

The event has roused mixed emotions among the large Indian expatriate community in the UAE, with some optimistic about a positive outcome, with others planning to boycott the meeting which they termed a `sheer waste of time and money' and also because Gulf NRIs were not given due importance at last year's session.

The three-day event to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will, for the first time, have a special session devoted to issues pertaining to Gulf NRIs.

A 40-member delegation is expected to attend the event from the UAE.

Mr Ram Buxani, prominent Dubai-based businessman, who is to address delegates at the special session, told Business Line that the event will provide an opportunity to highlight issues concerning Gulf NRIs, who account for over 4.5 million of the over 20 million NRI population across the globe.

"It is a good networking exercise. With a special session devoted to NRIs from the Gulf, we are hopeful of taking up a number of subjects that are of great concern to the Indian community here."

Mr Buxani said that special ID cards for NRIs would prove to be useful for overseas Indians, particularly those who have not taken up citizenship in their host countries.

All NRIs in the Gulf fall in this category. He admitted that it entailed a huge bureaucratic exercise and may require a lot of study, but it was an issue that NRIs here were keen to pursue seriously.

The special session, which will be addressed by the Union Minister for Labour, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, and the Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Vindo Khanna, will also take up issues related to labour problems faced by Gulf workers and application of labour laws in specific cases.

Mr Buxani pointed out that higher educational opportunities for Indian expatriate children were also posing many problems as a number of institutions for higher education were not available in the Gulf states.

He highlighted the need to ensure that well-known universities should be affiliated to institutions in the Gulf to ensure that children can complete their education without having to go back to India.

The proposal to introduce a comprehensive insurance scheme for NRIs, likely to be announced during the upcoming event, is a welcome move and could be of great help to workers in the Gulf, he said.

Lower airfares to the Gulf states, voting rights for NRIs, nomination to the Upper House in parliament and creation of the special Ministry to cater to overseas Indians are also issues that will be taken at the meeting.

However, Mr Bharatbhai Shah, a well-known businessman and social worker in Dubai, who addressed a number of issues at last year's meeting, maintains that a large number of NRIs from Gulf states are disillusioned at the `step-motherly' treatment accorded to them at last year's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

Mr Shah, who is not attending this year's event, told this paper that last year's session was not a success as painted in the media.

Gulf NRIs were not given prime time sessions to speak on crucial issues and had only five minutes to talk at a time when no important officials were present to listen to their demands, he said.

Most of the demands made by Gulf NRIs were pending for many years and even those that have been announced are yet to be implemented, he added.

Dual citizenship could pose security concerns for India, while voting rights and nominations could only serve the interests of politicians and businessmen with vested interests, he said.