The Hindu Business Line : `NRIs are in favour of floating political party'

A MAJORITY of the 22 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) worldwide are in favour of floating a political party in India and have effective representation in both Parliament and State Assemblies, according to the Indian Doctors, Engineers, Architects and Accountants Society (IDEAS). The move is aimed at protecting their interests and to address various problems, both existing and expected.

Speaking to newspersons on Friday to announce the details of the three-day NRI Convention to be held in Hyderabad from July 31, the IDEAS Founder Director, Mr Khaja Quadeer Anwar, said that the NRIs would resort to forming a political party only after exhausting all other avenues to protect their interests.

Stating that IDEAS expects Central and State Governments to initiate measures that safeguard the upcoming generations of NRIs, Mr Anwar said that two names were being discussed for the proposed political party - Pravasi Janata Party (PJP) and Indian Overseas Congress (IOC).

According to him, IDEAS has been expressing serious concern over the fate of repatriated overseas contract workers.

Stating that currently over 3.5 million overseas contract workers were employed in the Gulf countries, he said all these countries were aggressively fighting unemployment among their own nationals, which results in the repatriation of many Indian employees.

"In the next 5-10 years, there is going to be an exodus of returning NRIs. To overcome this and to keep the situation in control, we should plan and come out with a solution to rehabilitate them."

According to him, there has been a big demand from NRIs that any State that has more than one million NRIs should have a Ministry for Non-Resident Affairs.

As Andhra Pradesh enjoys the status of having the second largest number of NRIs in the world, it should think in the direction of having a separate Ministry for them.

"Since we already have a Central Minister for NRIs, we should at least have an Authority or Corporation (NRI Cell) which deals with the NRI affairs in the State," Mr Anwar said.

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