RE: Re: Atleast a few NRI's should return.

[prabhu.guptara@ubs.com]

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Dear Mr Rao
Theoretically well argued, but practically pointless:
Indians in India might be the decision-makers in theory but in practice they
find themselves paralysed by "the system".
Indians outside India might not be decision-makers at all in theory, but they
do have economic and influence power (witness the untold millions of foreign
money which has gone into making the BJP and the VHP the powerhouses that
they
are today).  Equally, witness the way overseas Chinese money initially (and
to
a large extent still) finances the extraordinary and almost incomprehensible
growth of the Red Chinese economy.  Or the way in which expat Iranians funded
and worked for the elimination of the Shah's regime and the ushering in of
the
present Iranian regime....

A real Indian is anyone who has India's interests at heart, wherever s/he may
live: there are, unfortunately, a number of Indian residents, who are
blackguards, thieves and worse.  Whether their number is smaller or larger
than
their number in other countries matters not a whit in relation to
discussion of
who an Indian is and whether NRIs should return ...and indeed whether some
Indian residents should be kicked out :)

Indians have in fact returned to India since the 1960s.  Not everyone has
been
able to cope with the continued degeneration of most conditions in India.
Though some have made it, thank God and thanks to them.  The issue is that
the
gap betwen conditions in India and conditions abroad grows wider and wider,
but
it was probably much more difficult to make the transition in the 1960s and
1970s than to make the transition since then (in my experience; though I
can't
speak for conditions at the moment and things might be changing for the
better
or for the worse right now).

NRIs who return "successfully" might make it as the Ambanis have done by
collaborating with the system; or they might make it by resisting the system.

As for the "cleaning of the dirt", that will only be possible through the
foundational work that is being done, for example, on IPI (mainly by NRIs or
with NRI support).

prabhu guptara



-----Original Message-----
From: kvprao
Sent: Samstag, 29. Juli 2000 05:40
To: debate
Cc: kvprao
Subject: FW: Re: Atleast a few NRI's should return.


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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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On Thu, 27 Jul 2000, Dennis Chacko wrote:

>  I totally agree! It seems like a catch 22 situation. NRIs want >problems
>like corruption,hygiene etc solved before they come back. >Somebody has to
>do the  dirty work.Like Mr.Prasad says, the US wasnt >built in a day. Its
>the Amricans who toiled and made it the country >that it is today. Somebody
>has to roll up their sleeves and get down >to work. If Indians are just
>going to wish their problems away, sorry >folks , not going to happen.

But it certainly won't be the NRIs because that's not the calling for
them ?

I think the whole Idea of Non-Resident Citizens is a sham. It's another
matter that NRCs have no choice if their adopted brethren don't deem it
useful to accord them citizenship; but that doesn't discount the fact that
on the face of it one IS either a resident and therefore concerned about the
LOCAL polity/land and therefore a citizen Or IS NOT. There does not seem to
exist a middle path here. It smacks of condescension claiming to work for a
motherland/fatherland without RESIDING there.  More, it's unhealthy to have
a split mind as that. An Algerian can only ask of a Korean if there's any
way that s/he could assist Korea by way of advice, services or finance; it's
upto the Korean to even listen to that, take that, leave that, dump that or
courteously thank and ignore that, coz how much would an Algerian know of
Korea to dispense with that help, after all; the Algerian can only have
economic interests (that includes Peace),
in which case the Korean would like to tap homegrowns for whatever task is
deemed necessary by the Korean (not the Algerian).

If, as it obtains today, there are NRCs it is owed to some pathetic
definitions of a nation-state constructed for some exingencies; the
earlier such artifacts are erased the better. There seems to be no reason
why a polity should be concerned about people who don't want to live and be
part of it. And the other way round too. I mean it's pretty neat and simple
there. Isn't it ? (the former is political and needs debate, while the
latter is purely personal)  Anybody care to enlighten this.

rao

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