Broken Promises, Empty Skies: Why NRIs Aren't Flying Home For Punjab Polls

The Punjab assembly elections of 2012 and 2017 had witnessed widespread participation from the state's diaspora, who launched the 'Chalo Punjab' campaign and booked chartered flights, thinking their participation would bring change and put Punjab back on track.

The 2012 and 2017 elections had instilled hope among them. In 2012, Manpreet Singh Badal launched his 'People's Party of Punjab' and in 2017 the Aam Aadmi Party forayed into the state's election process. Both parties were seen as new hope for the state, which was experiencing agrarian and social distress.

"But nothing of that sort happened. We were promised heaven and got hell. They also couldn't bring any change. All are same," said Harjinder Singh Raja, an NRI from the Dyalpuri area of Jalandhar.
Harjinder Singh Raja's statement speaks volumes about the disenchantment of the expat Punjabis.

Another NRI Punjabi, Gurdas Singh Tur, who lives in California, agreed that NRIs lost interest in the elections because the governments have failed to deliver on their promises.

"The functioning of the governments has remained the same. The NRIs are used, but there is no guarantee to safeguard their properties or their connection to the land. The missing enthusiasm kept them away from the 2022 assembly elections," said Gurdas Singh Tur.

Punjab also registered some cases of reverse migration over the last 10 years, but it failed to take off as the agrarian and social distress continued. Harjinder Singh Raja is one such case; he fought a Panchayat election and tried to bring a change in his village.

Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, who was a US citizen, contested and won the 2022 assembly election from the Ajnala assembly constituency on an AAP ticket. He was made Minister for NRI Affairs but was dropped from the cabinet on July 3, 2022.

"NRIs vote for a change with the hope that things will change and they will be heard. We have seen the 2017 and 2022 assembly elections when NRIs extended all types of help to the ruling AAP, but nothing changed. The promises made to the NRIs were not kept; they continue to lose their properties, corruption is knee-deep, and the law-and-order situation has worsened due to extortion demands from the gangsters. The NRIs are disposing of their lands and homes," said 
Harjinder Singh Raja, an NRI based in Dyalpuri, Jalandhar.

There are allegations that the government interfered in the functioning of NRI Sabha, the NGO having 25,000 NRI members. The red tape and interference have distanced NRIs from the Sabha.

In 2013, 17,000 NRIs took part in NRI Sabha elections. The figure dropped to 170 in 2020, which shows that the Punjabis living abroad were losing interest in their own organisation.

Electoral anhedonia is not limited to the NRI Sabha; the Punjabi diaspora is also losing interest in the assembly elections as well. The Punjabi diaspora is also going away from the democratic process.

Losing Ground: Why NRIs Fear for Their Property Back Home :

The biggest reason why the NRI Punjabis were turning away from the election process is the state's deteriorating law and order situation. The gangsters and corrupt cops, besides their own relatives, were not only facilitating NRI property grabbing and pseudo sale deals but were also involved in extortions.

The gangster-police extortion nexus is not limited to Punjab. It has spread across the country.

A recent US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indictment - linking the police-gangster nexus to the multi-core extortion case involving a Los Angeles-based Punjabi family, indicates how the situation has gone out of hand. The Punjab police arrested the accused Police Inspector, Gurinderjit Singh Nagra, after the FBI indictment.

A France-based NRI woman, Joginder Kaur Sandhu, who is originally from Ludhiana, has been fighting a legal battle for the last two decades to get back her property, which was grabbed by the land mafias in connivance with the Punjab police.

In June 2023, a 76-year-old Canadian NRI, Amarjit Kaur, accused AAP's Jagraon MLA Sarvjit Kaur Manuke of illegally occupying her house in Heera Bagh, Jagraon (Ludhiana district), which was vacated after the issue was highlighted in the media.

The Punjab government also runs a website for NRIs, which is not secure. The NRIs say they were promised heaven in the elections but were given hell.

"The East Punjab Urban Rent Restriction Act, 1949 (Section 13-B) has been amended to safeguard the interests of the NRIs, has provisions to remove the encroachments and to give immediate possession to the owner, but it has not helped secure NRI properties. Specialised NRI Revenue Courts are also there but these courts are over-burdened with cases other than NRI properties," said Jasvir Singh Gill, former President, NRI SABHA Punjab.

Voter Roll Panic: Punjabi Diaspora's Concerns On SIR Initiative 

What can further reduce the numbers of NRI voters is the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. The ECI has made elaborate arrangements, and the NRIs can submit Form 6-A online or at the embassy office concerned, but verification will be done offline.

The 12.81 per cent SIR deletion in Chandigarh is cited as an example of how NRI votes can be reduced. Of a total of 516,427 registered voters in Chandigarh, 66,147 were omitted from the draft roll, which is 12.81 per cent of the total voters. ECI data says that while 8.47 per cent voters shifted permanently, 2.43 per cent were absent voters and 0.68 per cent were deceased.

"NRIs are required to fill 6-A form available on the Election Commission of India website. Even if a non-resident Indian submits the form online, verification will be done offline. There is a possibility that thousands of NRIs will lose their vote under SIR as many of them will not submit the form and many may not be verified since they do not live in India," said Harman Singh, who lives in Canada's Toronto.