I don’t know whether the rulers of the country are ashamed of seeing how Indian citizens try to illegally enter the border of America, Britain, Canada or any civilized and developed country and when caught, they are expelled with humiliation or Do you die or get injured in this effort? We feel very ashamed. A figure has just come that in the first nine months of this year, 90,415 Indians have been caught while trying to enter the US border illegally.
This is the official figure of America that every hour 10 Indians are being caught illegally entering its border. America’s border police catches them and sends them back to the border from where they came. One hundred Indians have lost their lives this year and thousands have been injured while trying to enter America illegally. Think, people are spending lakhs of rupees by selling jewelery and land to go to another country and on top of that they are also taking so much risk!
Those who succeed in entering America illegally are being caught separately and are being loaded in ships and sent to India. So far this year, America has evacuated 1100 Indians and sent them back. A ship full of Indians who had entered America illegally reached Punjab on October 22. 50 percent of the people being caught trying to enter America illegally are Gujaratis.
The first place is occupied by the people of so-called well-to-do, developed Gujarat and then Punjab. Think, these two are relatively prosperous states of the country. Their per capita income is better compared to the cow dung areas of the country. Industrial development is better and the standard of living is better. Laborers from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bengal and Odisha go to these states to earn money and people from these states are sacrificing their lives to enter America and Canada!
There is a need to investigate the social and economic reasons why citizens of relatively prosperous states want to leave the country. Do they feel that their standard of living cannot be better in India and that out of concern for themselves and their children, they should go to some other civilized and developed country? Do they feel that India is no longer safe for them and their children or the education and health system here is not suitable for them?
Do they not see an opportunity to develop and move forward in India? Is the country’s divisive politics responsible for this or is the growing crony capitalism snatching away people’s opportunities? Is it that rather than the search for better opportunities and better living standards, policies of discrimination, social tension, political division, economic inequality etc. are forcing people to leave the country?
These questions arise because only middle class or lower middle class people are not trying to leave the country in search of a better life. A large part of the affluent and upper class is also trying to somehow get citizenship of another country. India’s Minister of State for Home Kirti Vardhan Singh gave a figure in the last session of the Parliament, according to which, in the nine years between 2015 and 2023, more than 12 lakh 39 thousand people of the country left the citizenship of India and took the citizenship of some other country. Before that, in the 14 years between 2000 and 2014, only 61 thousand millionaires had given up their Indian citizenship. That means the annual average which before 2014 was around Rs 4.5 thousand has now become Rs 1.5 lakh.
In the last nine years, an average of 377 people gave up Indian citizenship every day. This figure is of those people who are legally going to another country and taking citizenship there and renouncing Indian citizenship. These people are different from those who enter illegally. Those who try to enter other countries illegally are looking for a better standard of living but these people are having a better standard of living. These are millionaires and billionaires or brilliant professionals in the fields of medical and engineering. Their migration is a matter of greater concern because the country is being deprived of what these people could have done for the country with their wealth and their intelligence. Some other country is getting the benefit of their ability and capability.
Think, on one hand every day it is being claimed that India is becoming a world leader or India is becoming a world friend or India is becoming a hub of manufacturing, India is becoming the most attractive investment destination for the countries of the world, India is the fifth most It has become a country with a big economy, the golden age is going on in the country, the world is looking towards India with hopeful eyes and on the other hand the reality is that the citizens of India have to go to some other country somehow. How can this paradox be explained? How to know what is the reality of India, the one that is being claimed or the one that is revealed by shameful statistics?
There is a need to think seriously as to why India has become like this? Why do people of India want to escape from here using legal or illegal means? This is also a big question that why the most important thing in our diplomacy is begging for visas from the developed countries of the world? Recently, when the German Chancellor came to India, a bargain was made with him for 80 thousand additional visas.
We feel happy that any country in America, Britain or Europe is giving so many thousands or so many lakhs of visas to Indian students and professionals. People in India are happy that America is giving maximum visas to Indian students. It should not be a matter of happiness but of worry and shame that we are standing in front of every civilized and developed country with outstretched hands for visas or are risking our lives to enter its borders illegally. When we extend our hands for visa or try to enter a country illegally, the country with the fifth largest economy appears extremely pathetic.
When we are happy that America or Britain is giving such a large number of visas to our students or professionals, then why don’t we think about how many students or professionals we are giving visas to America or Britain? Has any citizen of India ever wondered how many American, European, British or Australian citizens want to come and settle in India, take citizenship here or want to study and work here? No one is coming to settle in our country or take citizenship here.
Even those who are slightly capable from the neighboring countries Pakistan and Bangladesh want to go to Europe, America or Britain. This situation will change only when efforts are made to make India a truly clean, organized and disciplined country. There is a need to keep in mind that we do not need to become Vishwaguru or Vishwamitra. America, Britain or European countries do not call themselves world leaders or world friends. India also has to become a normal country, where there is all-round development, prosperity, no inequality, clean air, better education and health systems and conditions for living a dignified life.