The extremely contentious and complicated issue centering around the status of Goans registering their births in Portugal, should be approached with the single minded objective of settling on a final, clear unequivocal stand after hearing all sides.
However, there is an eminent danger of the complex issue being used by the BJP to delete en mass from the electoral rolls, those who have registered their births as a future insurance but not picked up their citizenship cards. Since close to 90 percent of those who have done so are Catholics, from South Goa, it doesn’t need a political pundit to figure why the BJP would love to have them off the rolls. Why even the Chief Minister, no less, said last week that sections of the minorities have moved away from the BJP.
The debate over who exactly are Portuguese citizens, or more importantly not Indian citizens, while continuing to hold Indian passports and having voting rights, has been long drawn out. It is therefore unlikely that a conclusive solution which will satisfy all stakeholders – the Government of India, the Government of Goa and those who have either registered their births or are planning to do so – will be reached before the next Assembly elections.
While the decision makers – the Government of India and Goa figure out what to do to reach an amicably settled solution, here’s what they should not do, while waiting for the solution to emerge. They should not, at any stage, alter the status quo. This specifically means no names should be deleted from any voters list based mainly on a large consensus that those who have registered their births cannot be Indian nationals. If this is the decision arrived at and accepted and finally notified, names can indeed be struck off the rolls but a presumptive decision on this cannot be taken with the hidden agenda of subtle community linked name deletion before the Assembly polls of 2017.
The Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju has thrown some seasoning in the mix by saying that the Centre will create an authority to deal with the citizenship issue which will be Goa based. Normally, a government’s mind can be serious only if it puts a proposed decision on file and discusses it. This “decision” was announced at a press conference, with the details vague. This is what Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik too has pointed out.
Before any decision is arrived at,some important remarks and decisions need to be kept in mind as these give the issue some context. In October 2014 the new Consul General of Portugal in Goa, Rui Carvalho Baceira told a news agency that the identity card was proof of Portuguese citizenship. “If you obtained the Bilhete de Identidade de Cidadao Nacional, then you are a Portuguese national”, he was quoted as having said. At exactly the same time, in fact in the very week, then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar attended a meeting at the Home Ministry in Delhi, where he proposed, by far, the most radical of solutions. He sought a ‘dual nationality-type’ for thousands of Goans who have opted for Portuguese nationality under Portuguese laws for some of its former colonies. But one must remember, that was 2014, when he was still very grateful to the people of Goa, especially the minorities who gave him a majority and Parrikar was hoping for an encore in 2017. But that hope has long gone.
In, May 2015, there was relief that no decision which would have adverse effects on those who have either registered their births or obtained a citizenship card would be taken and a status quo, would be maintained. This was after a three member high level committee appointed to deliberate on Goa’s dual citizenship issue, and headed by additional secretary (home) B K Prasad had made certain recommendations to the Ministry of Home Affairs that such as Goans born before December 19, 1961, and who registered their births in Portugal after 1961, would not be considered Portuguese nationals as well as Goans who hold Portuguese passports will not be considered Indian citizens.
One of the suggestions which emerged during the meetings of this committee was that Goans who have registered their births in Portugal should be allowed to issue a declaration stating that they are Indian citizens and that they registered their births in Portugal for the better future of their children.
Meanwhile, the Law Ministry has advised the Ministry of Home Affairs that the country’s Citizenship Act may be amended to grant one-time amnesty to those Goans who have registered their births in Portugal.
Each of these need to be studied in utmost detail by those who have been doing do. More than a new authority, we need decisions which are firm and arrived at over time. A hatchet job to get many Goans off the rolls should not be allowed, under the garb of solving this vexed issue.
