Can India comprehend true worth of NRIs this time?

It’s winter again in India and the corporate ambiance of this budding superpower is gearing up to celebrate the annual fête of diaspora, the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. Will it be able to create any good impression, especially in the Indian governance, this time? This is the big question of the day and truly speaking, overseas Indians are expecting a good deal to be heard in the corridors of power. Can this be? We don’t know yet.

Our lack of knowledge hails from a number of factors. The first and foremost of these is that by now the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has found a reduction in attendance (the number of attendees is falling rapidly through the consecutive years) and as per founding fathers of the jamboree, by now it has fallen to around a fifth of what earlier editions did perceive. Recently this statement of a senior Foreign Affairs official came to the press and media, “The novelty of PBD is fading and there is no magic formula to increase the numbers. We cannot rotate the venue as it is difficult to get government officials to attend the meetings for three full days. Even if we invite the Union Home Minister for the function, he cannot stay more than a few hours. Last time, we got around 1,000 people since it was held in Chennai.”

What shall be the picture at this time? We can certainly be wannabe albeit we don’t know when the Indian governance will comprehend NRIs as part and parcel of the Indian soil and one of the best weapons for forging a colorful destiny. There is also another factor. Can you belittle the anguishes the NRIs suffered thanks to their interests in investing in India?

To cut a long story short, hundreds of thousands of rupees worth of property across the country has been provided of no value to the NRI owners because of a surfeit of legal squabbling and bureaucratic rigmarole. Far away from home and generally lacking local help to deal with these matters, a large number of overseas Indians find themselves in the excruciations of depression and distraction.

What can we do then? We can only hope that Pravasi Bharatiya Divas would be able to shun its agonies and Indian governance, in spite of being under the sway of morons, can get the true worth of NRIs.