NRIs IN CANADA AND US BOYCOTT PRAVASI BHARATIYA DIVAS

Surrey: About 850 Non-Resident Indians living in Canada and America have boycotted the upcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to be held in New Delhi from January 7-9 this year. According to the Surrey chapter of the NRI Cell, the unfulfilled promise of providing dual citizenship and right to vote to NRIs living in Canada and America forced the Indo-Canadians and Indo-Americans to boycott the event sponsored and organized by the Indian government. Talking to Indo-Canadian online, Vikram Bajwa of NRI Cell Surrey said, "In 2006, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised to present a bill granting dual citizenship and voting rights to People of Indian Origin (PIOs), and nothing has been done so far". He added, "There are a lot of NRIs who still have family and property in India, and unfortunately, any threat to the family and property is never addressed."
“Great Pravasi” Mahatma Gandhi had arrived this week 90 years ago whose memory is honored and celebrate through this historic gathering. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who with his wife Kasturba, walked down the ramp of a ship at Apollo Bunder in Mumbai on the 9th of January 1915, returning to a home where he would for all time be remembered, revered and loved as Bapu. It is in celebration of Gandhiji’s arrival in Mumbai that this meeting is organized at this time of the year for the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.