Thousands of Goan natives living in coastal and abroad, who have opted for Portuguese citizenship using a unique Portuguese law, will heave a sigh of relief after Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, assured that his Ministry will set up a panel to specifically study the issue.
Rijiju’s assurance comes after years of ambiguity on the issue of dual citizenship for Goans who have opted for citizenship of the former European colonist country, which has been one of the key contentious issue ahead of the 2012 State Assembly elections and promises to be a cagey, politically sensitive subject in the run-up to the upcoming State Assembly elections tentatively scheduled in January next year.
“Though its a complicated issue but deals with our citizens, we have done all home work, report is ready, very soon we will come out with an authority where whatever is required to be done will be done and it will be ensured that no genuine person suffers,” Rijiju told The Pioneer. The Minister was on a visit to Goa, to convey the achievements of the two years of rule under the Prime Minister Modi-led NNDA Government.
Goa was one of the oldest colonies of the Portugal and was liberated by the Indian army from colonial yoke in 1961. After the liberation, all Goan natives were granted Indian citizenship by the Union Home ministry via a common notification.
However, the departing Portuguese, preferred not to snip the umbilical cord with its colonials by allowing those living in Goa during the Portuguese regime to register their birth in Portugal and avail of citizenship and Portuguese travel identity documents.
The privilege was later extended to two more generations of Goans.
However over the years, several thousands Goans opted for a Portuguese citizenship and at the same time retained their Indian citizenship, creating a unique crisis of sorts. A crisis which Rijiju claims, stems from carrying citizenship laws in Portugal and India.
“We want to ensure that because of the differences between our laws and the laws of Portugal our people should not suffer,” the minister said, adding that the authority being set up by the central government would look into all aspects of the matter.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shantaram Naik has however said that creation of an authority would create chaos in the state ahead of the state assembly elections.
“Setting up of an authority to resolve the issue of citizenship will create chaos and will be counter productive,” Naik said. He instead said that the central government should amend section 9 of the Indian Citizenship act 1955.
Naik says that a proviso should be added to section 9 of the Act, to the effect that no citizen of India, shall be deemed to have lost his citizenship merely on grounds of his or her availing the facility conferred by the order enacted by Portuguese government, of registering their births in Portugal, to the Indians citizens, residing in the territory of erstwhile Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu and the Union Territory of Dadra and NagarHaveli, then ruled by the Government of Portugal, unless such Indian citizens voluntarily apply for the citizenship of that country with specific intention of renouncing the citizenship of India.
“If an amendment on these lines was carried out, the issue would have been resolved in one stroke,” Naik said.