Ex-Pak nationals to vote for 1st time as Indian citizens
Mostly illiterate and working in the unorganised sector, they were unaware about the procedures and their applications for citizenship were pending.
Ahmedabad: Ahmedabad-based Ghanshyam Khatri, 41, is keenly waiting for April 23, when Gujarat votes in the Lok Sabha elections, because he will be voting for the first time in his life. He was 14 when his family migrated to Ahmedabad from Hathumba of Sindh in Pakistan. He was accorded Indian citizenship only last year.
Pakistan figures prominently in Gujarat during the elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, used to frequently name Pakistan in his campaign speeches. This time, the neighbouring country is being mentioned for another reason: As many as 485 former Pakistani nationals who are living in Ahmedabad will vote for the first time as Indian citizens.
“Many people migrated from Pakistan years ago and their applications for Indian citizenship were pending for long. From last year we speeded up the process and, after due inspection, Indian citizenship is being accorded to them. They are now entitled to get the voter ID and Aadhaar cards and avail of the benefits of government schemes,” said district collector Dr Vikrant Pande.
“We have been able to clear the backlog of pending applications. Nearly 400 applications are being processed,” he said.
A gazette notification issued by the Centre on December 23, 2016, authorised some district collectors to accord Indian citizenship to minorities from the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Gujarat, the collectors of Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Kutch have been authorised to accord citizenship. Ms Dimple Varindani, a migrant from Karachi who came to India at the age of 13 and became a citizen later, has been helping the migrants.
Mostly illiterate and working in the unorganised sector, they were unaware about the procedures and their applications for citizenship were pending.
Ms Dimple Varindani, a Sindhi migrant from Karachi who came to India at the age of 13 and became a citizen later, has been helping them with their paper work. She runs an NGO called Helping Hands in Naroda area of Ahmedabad.
She said, “We have been living here since the 1990s, when the migration of minorities took place after the Babri masjid demolition. The government has relaxed the rules so it has become easy for our community to get Indian citizenship.” She was herself granted citizenship in 2016 and voted for the first time in the 2017 Assembly election.
“We have seen elections in Pakistan but let me say that it was not as safe as we are seeing them here. We were living under threat. Only those who have seen hell can value heaven,” said Mr Nandlal Meghnani, a migrant, in an emotion-choked voice.
Mr Meghnani, now 51, hailed from the Tharparkar area of Pakistan and migrated in 2001. He will vote for the first time in an Indian election with the same enthusiasm of other young first-time voters.