Topic: “Bidding Adieu to the Homeland: Greener Pastures Amidst ‘Acche Din’" A Discussion

In a Lok Sabha session in early December, Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan himself informed the Parliament that over 1 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship between January 2022 to October 2022 (Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/over-1-lakh-indian-gave-up-citizenship-between-january-to-october-2022-government-informs-lok-sabha-11670589857164.html).

He also further broke down the numbers by year from 2015.

“131,489 people gave up their Indian citizenship in 2015, 141,603 in 2016, 133,049 in 2017, 134,561 in 2018, 144,017 in 2019, 85,256 in 2020, 163,370 in 2021 and 1,83,741 till October 31 this year.”

Migration to the US, UK, and Canada from India isn’t anything new, from Punjab to Toronto or Tamil Nadu to California. But by elaborating upon these numbers after being asked by a lawmaker from the opposition as to how many renounced their Indian, the MoS—External Affairs may have scored a self-goal.

Since 2014, more than 9 lakh Indians no longer have the three-header tiger on their passports. That has been replaced by the bald eagle or a coat of arms of another country.

To try and make sense of this, join us at Lamakaan for an open-ended discussion about a trend that seems to be gaining more steam.

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