No 'achche din:' Explain why over 600 giving up Indian citizenship daily, Congress asks govt
'If our global ranking from hunger to happiness is falling and is consistently low, then this is bound to happen'
NT Correspondent
New Delhi: Targeting the government over many people giving up their Indian citizenship, the Congress on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he would talk about the issues that are forcing such a "high number" of Indians to move out of the country in search of "achche din".
Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh said data from the Ministry of External Affairs showed that 1,83,741 people renounced their Indian citizenship in the first 10 months of 2022, which amounts to 604 people leaving the country every day. This, he said, is 1.7 times higher than the figure of 2014, when on an average 354 people gave up their Indian citizenship every day.
He cited six reasons behind many Indians renouncing their citizenship the consistent high unem - ployment rate, low growth opportunities due to demonetisation and flawed implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the country's poor standings in three global indices related to hunger, gender gap and press freedom, and the country having the maximum number of the poor in the world.
Addressing a press conference, Vallabh claimed the majority of people leaving India are high networth individuals (HNIs) and asked if the PM would address the issues in his 'Mann ki Baat' radio address. He said that of those who gave up Indian citizenship in 2022, around 7,000 had an annual income of more than Rs 8 crore.