Snuggled into the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is a seemingly insidious provision that states that Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Registration can be cancelled if the OCI cardholder violates any of the provisions of the Citizenship Act or any other existing law that the central government notifies for this purpose.
No doubt, there is a provision that the OCI card holder will have the right to be heard before his registration is cancelled. But this is the misleading face of the provision regarding OCI cardholders. There are dangerous precedents set by this provision.
There is, in fact, a double whammy here: one, in subtle ways, concepts of second or third class citizenship are being floated or further entrenched, by making violation of the law grounds for cancellation of OCI registration; two, the language of the provision suggests that that violation of the law will not be established by due process, through a court of law empowered to establish the violation of that particular law, but will be summarily heard by the central government through mechanisms under the Citizenship Act.
It may be noted that the concept of Overseas Citizen of India was first introduced in the Citizenship Act, by the BJP-led NDA government itself, as it saw the OCIs as potential investors and funders for elections. The Statement of Objects and Reasons, of the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2003, spelt out that the central government had decided to make provisions for the grant of dual citizenship, following a recommendation to this effect by the central government constituted high-level committee on the Indian diaspora, for persons of Indian origin belonging to certain specified countries, which were mainly Australian, American and European countries. There was subtle discrimination based on religion, as countries with predominantly Muslim populations and those to which few Hindus migrated were not included.
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Thereafter in 2005, following an assurance on the occasion of Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas, the Congress-led UPA government expanded the scope to persons of Indian origin to all other countries, as long as their countries allowed dual citizenship, but retained Pakistan and Bangladesh as exceptions. Once again, the BJP led NDA Government amended the Citizenship Act in 2015, to fill “lacunae that were noticed” during its implementation and its review, where it changed the nomenclature from “overseas citizen of India” to “Overseas Citizen of India Cardholder” and sought to deny eligibility for OCI Card to not just persons from Bangladesh and Pakistan, but also to their children, or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, whether through male or female lineage.
Like the provisions in the National Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, this particular face of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2003 and the Citizenship Amendment Act 2015, went unnoticed.
Pakistan has a significant population of Goans, popularly called Karachi Goans. Grapevine has it that the other key provision in CAA 2019 of selectively enabling citizenship possibilities for illegal immigrants up to December 31, 2014, can be used by Goan catholics in Karachi to return ‘home’. But these Catholic Karachi Goans are not ‘illegal migrants’ and with the amendment of 2015, not just Karachi Goans, but even their children, grandchildren or great-grandchildren, cannot tap into the avenue of OCI registration otherwise available for persons of Indian origin, which provides dual citizenship with restrictions.
Goa has a disproportionate amount of OCI cardholders in relation to its population, because, in order to secure social and economic upward mobility and to flee from insecurity inflicted locally, many a Goans had obtained a Portuguese passport. Obtaining or rather reaffirming Portuguese citizenship – read as obtaining a Portuguese passport – was right of Goans who were citizens of Portugal at the time of the annexation of territories of Goa, Daman and Diu by then India.
Upon obtaining a Portuguese passport, these persons are required to surrender their Indian passports, although dual citizenship with some restrictions is recognised under the Citizenship Act. The way the law is structured and implemented, this meant that the only way the Goans with Portuguese passports were permitted to keep a proper physical connect with Goa, was through registration as an OCI.
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Broadly, therefore, now, under the Citizenship Act, 1955, as it stands today, a person is eligible for being registered as an overseas citizen if she is a former citizen of India, or eligible to become a citizen of India at the time of the commencement of the constitution, or belonged to a territory that became a part of India, howsoever that may be, after August 15, 1947 (as in the case of Goa), and is now a citizen of another country, or is married to a citizen of India or overseas citizen of India.
OCI cardholders are not entitled to full citizenship rights, but they have some privileges as compared to foreigners, such as having an Indian visa for a lifetime, being able to hold all but agricultural or tenanted properties, and not having to report to the Foreigner Regional Registration Office (FRRO) no matter how long they stay in the country.
Since many of the present OCI cardholders are those who have reaffirmed their Portuguese citizenship primarily to use it as a passport to get a job in any country in the European Union and to get out of the social distancing imposed on them due to their low social and economic status, for many, their migration is temporary – that is, till so long as they need to and can work and thereby become upwardly socially and economically mobile.
Many have houses in Goa which they renovate with their foreign income, and to which they hope to return to in their sunset years, apart from visiting every year during their vacation and for festive and family functions. Among these are especially many persons from the coastal stretch, including those from the fishing communities who have suffered economic hardships in recent times on account of depleting fish resources.
These OCI cardholders till now could afford to be vocal on concerns besieging their native localities in particular and Goa in general – especially concerns around the destruction of their culture and environment. However, the possibility of articulating and consolidating an opinion on emerging concerns may soon become a thing of the past, if the provisions of CAA 2019 remain on the statute book. For, if they articulate their opposition to any so-called development projects, including those along the coast, they risk being slapped with notices of violation of some odd law that the government has notified to attract the cancellation of OCI registration.
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In a charged and polarised environment where actual perpetrators of violence are not even booked, and political dissenters are brazenly profiled and slapped with false cases, there remains little doubt that the CAA 2019 will be leveraged against vocal dissenting OCI cardholders, who question the destructive development models being executed upon Indian soil. These destructive models could include development projects such as marinas and coal corridors at the cost of coastal communities.
Already, India has a history of cancelling OCI registration, using existing provisions for cancellation on the grounds of concealment of material fact, the merits or otherwise of the cancellation notwithstanding. The cancellation of the OCI registration of Aatish Ali Taseer is a case in point. Such incidents can only increase with the introduction of provisions that derogate from the already existing due processes of law to determine a violation of the law.
Thus, along with and apart from the many other problematic aspects of the CAA 2019, just the provision on OCI can prove to be very damaging to the interests of many natives of Goa and other parts of India.
Albertina Almeida is a Goa-based lawyer and human rights activist.
