Team Herald
PANJIM: The opposition Congress, on Sunday, strongly condemned the Ministry of Home Affairs’ notification altering the status of Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) alleging that it was another step to close Indian society to the outside world. Goans overseas will find it increasingly difficult to invest in and contribute to protect their identity, it said.
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GPCC president Girish Chodankar said that “the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government since coming to power is all out to sell Goa to crony capitalist friends of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the three linear projects and CZMP and now this draconian OCI notification will finish the hard working Goans working abroad.
Chodankar said that the Ministry of Home Affairs’ notification of March 4, 2021 dramatically altered the status of Overseas Citizens of India (including Non-Resident Goans). The notification issued under Section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, superseded three earlier notifications issued during the UPA government’s time and laid down the rights of the OCIs.
The new notification humiliates and illegally classifies OCIs as “foreign nationals” and introduces a series of new restrictions that curtail the rights and liberties of OCIs of India, he said.
“Modi government is working on the behest of RSS and implementing their ideologies to create more troubles to people. They together want to sell Goa to crony capitalist friends of Modi,” charged Chodankar.
“Goa government is not able to give jobs to the people of this State, hence our youths find jobs overseas. This new notification will disconnect them with Goa and also will create hurdles to send money, by creating a wall of bureaucracy, to their families. Hence this notification should be immediately withdrawn as it will further collapse the economy,” he demanded.
Chodankar feared that Goa will face a scenario where the Central government will harass people by sending notices to people living in Goa, who receive funds from their OCI relatives abroad.
Chodankar further elaborated that Non-Resident Goans abroad will now not be able to send money to their families in India without having to go through the hardships of FEMA regulations. Goan OCIs, especially those with Portuguese passports, will not be able to participate in religious activities such as organising feasts and donating to temples, churches, mosques and Gurudwaras in Goa.
“I want to remind the BJP Government that the OCI privileges were a gift and a right extended to the Goans overseas from Congress. Congress had implemented the concept not to just give people of Indian origin with foreign national citizenship a right-filled pass to participate in the future of their country of origin but was the first experimental step towards dual citizenship where people like Goans with Portuguese passports would be able to vote in elections in India,” he said.
