NRIs demand provision for nominating representative to Indian Parliament

LONDON: Indian government must make Constitutional provision for nominating a representative of non-resident Indians to the country's Parliament, a prominent leader of the Indian Overseas Congress ( London) UK has said.

"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 Indian Overseas Congress (London) UK, said.

He made the remarks last night at a reception hosted in honour of Gulchain Singh Charak, permanent invitee to 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 Passport."

He regretted that no one was paying any heed to tap NRI voting or the influence they could have back home.

Answering a question regarding the demand for NRI representation in Indian parliament, Charak said the matter needed a thorough study and he would take it up with the concerned authorities.

Addressing the gathering, Charak said a series of measures have been taken recently to strengthen the Congress in Punjab and Bihar and expressed the confidence that the party would secure absolute majority in Punjab in the assembly elections expected in February next.

"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 claimed the people in Punjab were "fed up of the Akali Government because of its misrule, lawlessness and corruption." The people are in favour of Congress party "because they want a secular government and only Congress could provide it."

He said Congress party would organise "parivartan yatra" (movement for change) from October 1 in all the 170 assembly constituencies in Punjab.

Virendra Sharma, leading Labour MP, Manjit Lit, Chairman of the IOC, Councillor Sunil Chopra, General Secretary of IOC, Councillor Ajmer Dhillon, senior Vice President of the IOCand Councillor Satpal Parmar, spoke on the occasion.

Prominent among those who attended the event were leading NRI solicitor Hari Singh, well known physician Dharmendra Tripathi and entrepreneur J S Malhotra.

2 NRIs in Kuwait receive prestigious award

KUWAIT CITY: Prominent business personality and Kuwait's chain of supermarket Gulfmart's country head TA Remesh and Sageer Trikarpur, chairman of Kuwait's largest social welfare association of Indian nationals, were awarded the prestigious Garshom Award on Monday.

Najma Heptulla, former Rajya Sabha chairperson presented the award to Remesh and Trikarpur in a glittering function held at Salmiya Indian Community School, Salmiya. Indian embassy charge d affairs Vidhu P Nair,Samajwadi Party national general secretary Rajeev Kumar Rai and former Karnataka MLA Ivan Nigli were the chief guests. Sunitha Krishnan from Hyderabad, VC Praveen from Chennai, S Ahmed from Trivandrum and the AllMalaysia Malayalee Association also received the award on Monday.

The Garshom Award was instituted by Bangalore-based Garshom Infomedia for NRIs settled abroad and those who have returned to the country. The award committee constitutes Ivan Nigli, Dr B Ashok Kumar (Muscat), Polly Mathew Somatheeram (Germany) and Jins Paul (MD, Garshom Infomedia Limited).

In her speech, Najma Heptulla said, "I am happy to know that TA Remesh is holding a very successful post among the Kuwait business community. It's highly appreciable that he employs large number of Indians in this country."

Prominent members of the community also attended the award function. A special musical evening was also organized as a part of the award presentation ceremony. 

NRIs can now open joint accounts with resident Indian

MUMBAI: Liberalising the foreign exchange rules, the Reserve Bank today allowed NRIs to hold joint account with Indian residents, a move that would help increase remittances.

The central bank has also permitted sale proceeds of foreign investments in India to accrue to NRE/FCNR accounts after tax deductions, under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Foreign Currency Non-Resident (FCNR) account and Non-Resident External (NRE) account are opened by Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) with the Indian banks.

As per the recommendations of the committee constituted to review facilities available under FEMA, the central bank has taken such steps.

RBI has allowed residents of India to include non-resident close relative in their resident bank accounts on 'former or survivor' basis. However, such non-resident relative shall not be eligible to operate the account during resident's lifetime, it said in a notification.

It also permitted NRIs to open NRE/FCNR account with their resident close relative. In this case, the resident relative can operate the account as a power of attorney holder.

Similarly, the central bank has doubled the slab under which securities worth USD 50,000 per fiscal can be transferred by resident Indians to non-resident individuals 'by way of gift' from the present level of USD 25,000.

RBI has also allowed resident individuals to include resident close relative in their EEFC (Exchange Earners Foreign Currency) or RFC(Resident Foreign Currency) as a joint account holder.

Tie-tanic affair at Chepauk in 1986

September 22 marks the 25th anniversary of thesecond-ever Tied Test, between India and Australia contested at Chepauk in 1986. TOI revisits the drama and speaks to the main protagonists of cricket's ultimate reality show over those absorbing five days.

What do you remember most about the Tied Test in Madras (Chennai)? Dean Jones vomiting all over the turf. David Boon and skipper Alan Border's merciless assault on the Indian bowlers. Kapil Dev's brilliant counter-attack that helped India save the follow on.

Greg Matthews, still reasonably inexperienced when it came to bowling in the sub-continent, spinning a web around batsmen used to playing spin in their sleep. Or Ravi Shastri, almost praying at the non-striker's end on Day Five, hoping that No. 11 Maninder Singh somehow gets bat on ball to help India win.

It won't be doing any one of the great gentlemen disservice if you can't remember the listed feats.

Mere acknowledgement of the fact that the Test was played in the most trying of conditions (40 degrees heat, 95 % humidity) would be a fitting tribute to the 22 players and two umpires (Dara Dotiwala and Vikram Raju) that have now become part of history.
That the second Tied Test didn't receive as much fanfare as the first one (Australia vs West Indies, Brisbane, 1960) is tragic indeed.

What is also somewhat curious is the fact that neither the BCCI, CA nor the players chose to plan a reunion to recreate the magic and the drama of those surreal five days in Madras.

An Indian for President of United States

Indian for President of United States - is that possible?

As we approach Presidential elections in 2012 and numerous candidates throw their hat's in the political ring, this is a obvious outcome, which i am sure many Indian Americans would like to see happen.

Now, this is a real possibility. Governor of Louisiana, Governor Bobby (Piyush) Jindal is eligible for the office of the President, as his recently released birth certificate shows. Governor Jindal is not a 'candidate' as of yet, but the door is open, should he decide to run.

Any "American" of foreign descent can aspire to be President of United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, but the caveat is that "you have to be born here".

The Constitution of United States, as it was written by the founding fathers - Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 states that : No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Living in Quincy MA, birth place of founding father and 2nd US President John Adams, I can very well understand the 'reasoning' behind why this clause was put in the constitution. And anyone who has read history can understand the fear of the founding fathers of treason and sabotage by a person not born on this soil, given their deep anguish to separate from the mother land "England". But today , as we have seen, one does not have to be born in another country to have 'ill feelings' toward the US. One example is that of Timothy McVeigh and Oklahoma Citybombing (1995) considered to be most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. A strong case can be made for those becoming naturalized citizens, having a deep sense of 'loyalty' to this country because of the circumstances they have left behind to want to work hard and obtain citizenship of this great country.

The Constitution cannot be changed, but a clause can be added to allow for a person, born outside the United States to make such an attempt.

Naturalized citizens consider this country as their home, just like those born here and spend many years of their valuable lives, toiling hard to earn the privilege to be called "Americans". They pay taxes, vote, buy homes, invest in the economy and their children attend schools here. They should therefore be offered the same opportunity to put their 'tears and sweat' to good use and the use of their experiences to make this country a solid global leader.

Its going to take some changes, before first generation Indian American's can become President of the US but with their children, its a real possibility like Governor Bobby Jindal.