No Indian passport for Sat

MAHA SABHA general secretary Sat Maharaj, will not be applying for citizenship of India, he told Newsday yesterday. Last Saturday, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs permanent secretary, Krishna Kumar, announced that the government of India is allowing persons of Indian descent living in 16 approved countries to apply for dual citizenship, and that within months Trinidad and Tobago nationals could also be eligible. Maharaj told Newsday he was not personally interested.

“My personal thought is that I don’t require dual citizenship. I am content with my (TT) citizenship. “I am quite content as a Trinidad and Tobago citizen. I can get a visa to India quite easily to satisfy my religious and cultural needs. I can go easily. As far as I am concerned there is no need for it.” However, he thought that Indo-Trinidadian business people might be interested in the offer of Indian citizenship.  “It might help for doing business with India.” Asked if the offer to Indo-Trinidadians only would be divisive in a cosmopolitan country like Trinidad and Tobago, Maharaj replied by asking if the granting of dual citizenship by countries like the UK was divisive. He said that long before India, China had also been granting dual citizenship. “In fact the overseas Chinese created China’s economic revolution.” He said some fabulously wealthy Chinese lived in Canada and Malaysia and had helped China although they might not want to reside there.

When asked if a move to grant mass citizenship to a select 40 percent of the population of Trinidad and Tobago would be divisive, Maharaj said, “The overwhelming majority would not go for dual citizenship. It would be only persons doing business with India. “Tens of thousands of people in Trinidad and Tobago are holding United States green cards — why, is that not divisive? Why is it only India that is divisive?” He said that in fact the “biggest culprit” was the United States which, by offering SAT scholarships, was drawing away the brain power of Trinidad and Tobago. In contrast, our nationals could benefit from temporary study in India and come back to help transform our country. 

Asked how India would benefit from granting dual nationality to overseas Indians, Maharaj replied, “When India exploded its first atomic bomb, the United States and other countries put a freeze on loans to India. India appealed to the overseas Indians, and within two weeks it had got five billion dollars.” Asked if dual citizenship was part of a political agenda by India which could affect our local ethno-political tussle, Maharaj said, “Absolutely not. If Nigeria offered dual nationality, would it make a difference? No. Likewise most East Indians would not be interested. “Very few East Indians have had a chance to go to India, and just mainly for business.”