Milpitas: On a day of festive atmosphere with celebrations of Halloween day, a large number of San Francisco bay area NRIs took break from the hues and costumes of the festival and took part in "NRI Voting Rights Drive" in support of the absentee voting facilities for NRIs. The event was collectively organized by "People For Lok Satta", Manavata.org and India Community Center and has attendance of NRIs representing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamilnadu.
The host of the event, Mr. Sharat Mangalpally highlighted the contributions of Indians living abroad towards the India economy and in fields of technology, non-profits among others. In spite of NRIs vital role in raising the stature of India world wide, it is unfortunate that NRIs are deprived of their basic right to vote in India, he lamented. He explained that the NRI voting rights bill is getting ready to be introduced in the Lower house of Parliament November 2010 winter session but this bill requires the NRIs to be physically present in India to cast their vote on the election day. This, he explained, is practically impossible and the bill amendment can be meaningful only when provided with some sort of Absentee voting facility to the NRIs. He also explained in detail how the combination of internet and postal ballot is a practical absentee voting solution.
Mr. Naren Bhakshi, a successful entrepreneur and a community leader of the silicon valley, graced the occasion as the chief guest of the day and participated in live interaction and debate. He shared his ties with Indian community and recalled how he had been living with two identities, Indian and American over the last four decades. He ardently requested the NRIs to actively participate in this campaign, collect signatures in support of the Petition for Absentee voting and reach out the NRI world with the help of media. Mr. Bakshi is one of the six non government members of White-house delegation team to India in September 2010 that prepared the initial blue print for upcoming Obama's trip to India. He presented his vision for Indo-American relations in the areas of education, e-governance and alternative energy research and conveyed that one can live as real Indian and real American at the same time. He suggested to take the activity as dialog instead of as fight with the Government of India. He observed that the absentee voting rights are useful for all Indians though they can be started as facility for NRIs.
“Absentee voting rights is not in the best interest of some politicians as NRI votes are not influenced by corrupt political practices like liquor, money etc. So there will be some resistance to this campaign”, opined Mr. Atanu Dey, a vivid blogger on economics and development subjects. Mrs. Anita, a journalist from Bay area, told that she kept her Indian citizenship by choice, as that is one of the dearest things to her heart. She expressed that concerned NRIs could spend 5$ postal expenses instead of $1500 to travel to India to vote, if the Government of India introduces postal ballot option for NRIs to vote in Indian elections. Several community leaders from other cities like Mr. Jayaram Komati, TANA president sent supportive messages to the drive.
Mr. Srikanth Kocharlakota, People For Loksatta volunteer from Bay area, recalled his campaign experiences. People for Lok Satta has been actively advocating the cause of Absentee voting and is one of the torch bearers worldwide. Srikanth was a lead volunteer handling the ‘Calling the MPs’ campaign to garner support for amending the NRI voting rights bill and he himself called numerous MPs from Karnataka. He told that he was pleasantly surprised at the awareness of Karntaka MPs of the NRI voting rights bill. One such pleasant experience was with a senior B.J.P leader Mr. Janardhana Samy. Janardhana Samy, who represents Chitradurga from Karnataka was an NRI and had worked in several software companies like Cisco before moving back to India. Mr. Swamy not only supported the inclusion of absentee voting but also provided valuable suggestions.
Overall, the event had enthusiastic participation from the audience.The participants feared that it took 5 years to get the NRI voting rights bill drafted and if NRIs do not come together, it would take 10 more years to get mechanism in place. They vowed to make all they could do before Nov 9th 2010, the day before winter parliament session starts, to have the NRIs voice heard in the Parliament.
To know more, visit http://WWW.NRIVotingRights.info.
