Why all Indians should cheer

The world’s largest democracy finds a way to give millions of people the chance to vote

Workers carry boxes containing election material at a government office in Hyderabad, India (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Non-resident Indians are also non-voting Indians, so the joke goes among the 10 million Indian passport holders who live abroad to work or study. The reference is to a serious anomaly in the electoral laws of the world’s largest democracy: absentee citizens generally find themselves disenfranchised by the ban on postal ballots and proxy votes and the requirement that voters cast their ballot in person at their registered place of residence in India. This affects the democratic rights of a diverse group of Indians – Malayalis from the southern state of Kerala working in the UAE and throughout the Middle East; Punjabi taxi drivers in New York; students from Delhi or Mumbai enrolled in masters programmes in London; software engineers from Hyderabad recruited to Silicon Valley firms and a far larger group of Indians who have migrated within the country and are either working or studying in another state.

It all sounds quite old-fashioned, a relic from a bygone age when migration – international or domestic – was a rarity and travel was something to be attempted by only the very brave or the foolhardy. Monday’s decision by India’s highest court sets that right. As reported by The National, the court gave the Indian government eight weeks to work on changes to the electoral law to allow expatriate Indians to vote by proxy or by means of an emailed ballot, which they could complete and post back to India. This will bring India in line with countries like the United States, the UK, Switzerland and others, which believe that the right to vote is too precious to be denied for mere logistical reasons.

So far so good. Now if only India could work on bringing 21st century rationality to the complicated categories of overseas Indians it recognises. The non-resident Indians have Indian passports and can vote if they fly home to do so. But millions of people in the official category “Overseas Citizen of India” neither have passports nor the right to vote, just a lifelong visa and the right to live and work in India. It doesn’t make sense.