Over 1.63 lakh Indians gave up citizenship in 2021; US, Aus top destinations
The reasons for these Indians renouncing their home country citizenship, which also means they have to surrender their Indian passport, was “personal to them”
Over 1.63 lakh Indians gave up their Indian citizenship last year, highest since 2015, with almost half of them – 78,284 – preferring to become US citizens, according to a data shared by the government in Parliament on Tuesday.
In 2021, as many as 1,63,370 Indians gave up their Indian passports. This number was 1,44,017 and 85,256 in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The reasons for these Indians renouncing their home country citizenship, which also means they have to surrender their Indian passport, was "personal to them", the ministry of home affairs (MHA) said.
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Indian Constitution and the citizenship laws don't allow dual citizenship to anyone.
The data, shared by union minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai while responding to a query by Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Member of Parliament Haji Fazlur Rehman, reveals that after the US, Australia (23,533), Canada (21,597), the UK (14,637), Italy (5,987), New Zealand (2,643) and Singapore (2,516) were where Indians preferred to acquire citizenship.
While 78,284 Indians took up US citizenship last year, 30,828 got it in 2020 and 61,683 in 2019. All of them were based in the US itself while renouncing their Indian nationality.
Forty-one Indian nationals based in Pakistan also gave up their Indian citizenship last year, compared to only seven in 2020.
Around 326 Indians renounced their citizenship while being in the UAE last year and applied for citizenship in countries such as Albania, France, Malta, Pakistan, Philippines, Portugal, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Ireland, Grenada, Jordon, Mauritius, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, among others
Overall, 9,32,276 Indians renounced their citizenships in favour of other countries between 2015 and 2021, according to the government statistics shared with Parliament in February last year and on Tuesday.
At the same time, the data shared by the MHA in November 2021 stated 10,645 foreign nationals applied for Indian citizenship between 2016 and 2020, with maximum 7,782 from Pakistan and 795 Afghan nationals. Of these, 4,177 persons were granted Indian citizenship by the government.
452 "stateless" persons also applied for Indian citizenship between 2016 and 2020, according to the home ministry, but it is not known how many were given Indian citizenship and which territory they applied the citizenship from.
The MHA said last year that 1,33,83,718 Indian nationals are currently living in foreign countries.
A law brought in by the government in 2019 to grant Indian citizenship to the six persecuted minorities - Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian - from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, is yet to be implemented for lack of rules.
