When the announcement was made that Indian-origin Rishi Sunak has been elected as the next Prime Minister of Britain, euphoria was seen in India with Indian media and several Indians hailing the event, as if an Indian citizen has achieved this feat.  Ridiculous comments have been heard such as “India was ruled by the British earlier and Britain will now be ruled by an Indian “.

Similarly, when Indian-origin Kamala Harris was elected as Vice President of the USA, many celebrations happened in India and residents of the village in Tamil Nadu, which was supposed to be the native village of the family Kamala Harris, even organized thanksgiving offerings in the local temple.  One is not sure whether Kamala Harris has visited this village at all at any time in her life.

There are so many other Indian families and individual Indians who have migrated to the USA, Canada, European and other countries in the last several decades and have surrendered their  Indian citizenship and become full-fledged citizens of the countries to which they migrated.  Quite a number of them are occupying top positions in governments, and corporate undertakings and a few of them have even been awarded the  Nobel Prize.

It is often heard in India that the success of the former citizens of India who have migrated to other countries, and who are termed and described in India as persons of Indian origin, proves the capability of Indians.

No more Indian citizens

When someone becomes a full-fledged citizen of another country by giving up Indian citizenship, obviously their loyalty and duty are to the country to which they have migrated and, in effect, they have cut off their bridge with India. It also reflects the mindset of such persons that the value of the citizenship of the countries to which they have migrated is much more than the value of citizenship of India, which they once held.

As a number of such families of migrated persons have been living in the migrated countries for several decades now, the second and third generation of people in the families may not have visited India at all and may not have much information about India and most probably may not care about the culture and traditions of India any longer.

We often hear such first-generation migrated persons claim that they are emotionally attached to India, but this should not be as they are no more Indians and are the citizens of migrated countries to which they should be emotionally attached.

It appears that some people in India think that Rishi Sunak being the Prime Minister of Britain and Kamala Harris being the Vice President of the USA would provide several benefits to India.  This can never happen, as they are not Indian citizens anymore.

There is nothing wrong with Indians migrating to other countries of their choice and becoming full-fledged citizens there. Some Indian citizens may consider such people as privileged and think that Indians should be proud of them.   Then, in such cases, it may create suspicion about the mindset of such Indians and their thought process.

Let those who migrated to other countries as full-fledged citizens be loyal to the migrated country and let them not claim that they are proud of India and its value systems. Obviously, they should not be, since they have given up their Indian citizenship voluntarily,  preferring another country for citizenship.

(The writer is a Trustee, of NGO Nandini Voice for the Deprived, Chennai and a policy commentator. Views are personal. He can be contacted at nsvenkatchennai@gmail.com)