(MENAFN- The Peninsula) In the past, pressing issues of working class non-resident Indians (NRIs) from the Gulf region had consistently been side-lined by the Congress-led government at the annual gatherings of overseas Indians.
This year, the BJP-led dispensation played host to the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas which, since 2003, has marked the day when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi returned to India from South Africa. In this, the 100th year of the Mahatma's return to his homeland, the event was shifted to Gujarat, his place of birth.
For the wealthy diaspora from the West it was a grand reception, but for the poor non-resident workers it was a grand deception.
Headlines screamed about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "New Year Gift for NRIs" in the form of merger of the OCI and PIO schemes. None of this applies in any case to a single expatriate in the Gulf whose numbers are at least five times greater than those in USA and Canada. But then, this was a promise made at Madison Square!
While pandering to this class of NRIs, serious and real matters affecting low and medium income Indians abroad have been neglected. Issues like a policy for rehabilitation and resettlement of returnees, a meaningful pension scheme for low-income workers, release of NRIs in foreign jails, high airfares and the proposed lowcost Kerala airline, higher education for expat children, understaffing of embassies in the Gulf and, above all, enactment of the Emigration Management Bill seem completely forgotten.
The irony, however, that rubs salt into the 'have-not' expatriates' injury is that the man who crusaded for the downtrodden was made out into a poster boy for the event. Brand Gandhi was everywhere. In the run-up to the meet, the celebration's Twitter handle had been promoting schemes launched by the Narendra Modi government along with Gandhian slogans. One such post read: "Cleanliness is next to Godliness", and showed Gandhi wading through a river. Alongside is a picture of Modi and a slogan on the government's national mission to clean Ganga.
Another post promoted the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana with a picture of Gandhi. It said, "Gandhiji lived his life to empower Indians to fight social and economic exclusion." Alongside there was a picture of Modi with the slogan: "Ek lehar desh bhar, ek bank khata ho har ghar."
The PBD website devoted a special page to Gandhi titled "Know Your Mahatma" with videos, photos, manuscripts, book extracts, newspaper clippings, sketches and other information. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs organised a Gandhi Gallery which features Books and Paintings. Special commemorative coins and postage stamps were released in Gandhi's memory.
At the venue, visiting expatriates and foreign delegates were 'taught' to weave khadi (the material used by Gandhi as a symbol of India's industrial self-dependance) and presented with gifts made of the fabric.
Not everyone is impressed. More so, because some wings of the same Sangh Parivar that Modi belongs to have been going around extolling Gandhi's killer and promising to erect his statues across India. N. Vasudevan, director of the Indian Council for Gandhian Studies was quoted by the media as saying: "NRIs wearing Gandhi topis and using charkha is only going to be a grand PR exercise for the PM. He is doing this only to get international claim. If he really valued Gandhi so much, he would have at least reprimanded his MPs who openly praised Godse (Gandhi's assassin)."
At the event, though, Modi and his men, went to the extent of promoting the headline-making prime minister as the modern day Gandhi.
"A hundred years ago, a pravasi Bharatiya (non-resident Indian) had returned to India to serve this country," Modi said in his inaugural speech, and added "today, a hundred years later, a pravasi Gujarati (non-resident Gujarati) is welcoming you here." If that was an indirect pitch, senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu left nobody in doubt what he said "If Gandhiji was the man of the moment 100 years ago, Shri Narendra Modi is the man of the moment now. It seems to be a divine coincidence that both share the same place of birth."
So, would a man so inspired by Gandhian principles have laid out the red carpet for foreign investors or would he haved pitched himself into the service of the 'harijans' among the overseas diaspora?
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.