Overseas Indians Want Representative In India Parliament
Tuesday, 20/09/2011
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=614226
Non-resident Indians (NRIs) in the UK have urged the Indian government to nominate a NRI representative to India's Parliament, reports Press Trust of India.
"NRIs holding Indian passports must have their representative in the Parliament and the Indian Government must make constitutional provision for it," D L Kalhan, president of the Indian Overseas Congress (London) UK, said here on Saturday.
He was speaking at a reception in honour of Gulchain Singh Charak, permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee and in charge of Punjab, Chandigarh and Bihar Congress.
Kalhan said the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) was "instrumental in getting the voting rights for NRIs holding Indian passports."
He said no one was looking to tap NRIs' votes or the influence they could have in India.
To a question on the demand for NRI representation in the Indian parliament, Charak said the matter needs a thorough study and he would take it up with the relevant authorities.
Addressing the gathering, Charak said a series of measures have been taken recently to strengthen the Congress in Punjab and Bihar and expressed confidence that the party would secure an absolute majority in Punjab in the assembly elections expected in February next year.
"The atmosphere in Punjab is in favour of Congress and the party will come back to power with a good majority," he said.
Noting that Congress has "adopted" a policy of "zero tolerance" as far as corruption is concerned, Charak said "the party has not pardoned any person facing corruption charges."
He said the people in Punjab are "fed up with the Akali Government because of its misrule, lawlessness and corruption." The people are in favour of the Congress party "because they want a secular government and only Congress can provide it."
He said the Congress party would organise "parivartan yatra" (movement for change) from Oct 1 in all the 170 assembly constituencies in Punjab.
Leading Labour MP Virendra Sharma, IOC chairman Manjit Lit, IOC general secretary Sunil Chopra, IOC senior vice president Ajmer Dhillion and Councillor Satpal Parmar also spoke on the occasion.
Among those in attendance were leading NRI solicitor Hari Singh, well-known physician Dharmendra Tripathi and entrepreneur J S Malhotra.
