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Should we be proud of 'achievements' of Indian origin Kamala Harris or Rishi Sunak?

By NS Venkataraman* 
When the announcement was made that Indian origin Rishi Sunak has been elected as the next Prime Minister of Britain, an euphoria was seen in India with Indian media and several Indians hailing the event, as if an Indian citizen has achieved this feat. Ridiculous comments have been heard such as “India was ruled by the British earlier and Britain will now be ruled by Indian."
Similarly, when Indian origin Kamala Harris was elected as Vice President of USA, many celebrations happened in India and residents of the village in Tamil Nadu, which was supposed to be native village of the family of Kamala Harris, even organised thanks giving offerings in the local temple. One is not sure whether Kamala Harris has visited this village at all at any time in her life.
There are so many other Indian families and individual Indians who have migrated to USA, Canada and European and other countries in the last several decades and have surrendered their Indian citizenship and became full fledged citizens of the countries to which they migrated. Quite a number of them are occupying top positions in governments, corporate undertakings and a few of them have even been awarded the Nobel Prize.
It is often heard in India that the success of the former citizens of India who have migrated to other countries and who are termed and described in India as persons of Indian origin, prove the capability of Indians.
When someone becomes a full fledged citizen of another country giving up Indian citizenship, obviously their loyalty and duty is to the country to which they have migrated and in effect they have cut off their bridge with India. It also reflects the mindset of such persons that the value of the citizenship of the countries to which they have migrated are much more than the value of citizenship of India, which they once held.
Some people think that Rishi Sunak and Kamala Harris would benefit India. This can never happen
As a number of such families of migrated persons have been living in the migrated countries for several decades now, the second and third generation of people in the families may not have visited India at all and may not have much information about India and most probably may not care about the culture and traditions of India any longer.
We often hear such first generation migrated persons claim that they are emotionally attached to India, but this should not be as they are no more Indians and are the citizens of migrated countries to which they should be emotionally attached.
It appears that some people in India think that Rishi Sunak being the Prime Minister of Britain and Kamala Harris being the Vice President of the USA would provide several benefits to India. This can never happen, as they are not Indians any more.
There is nothing wrong in Indians migrating to other countries of their choice and becoming full fledged citizens there. Some Indian citizens may consider such people as privileged and think that Indians should be proud of them. Then, in such cases it may create suspicion about the mind set of such Indians and their thought process.
Let those who migrated to other countries as full fledged citizens be loyal to the migrated country and let them not claim that they are proud of India and its value systems. Obviously, they should not be, since they have given up their Indian citizenship voluntarily, preferring another country for citizenship.
---
*Trustee, Nandini Voice For The Deprived, Chennai

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