I recently heard on the radio that NRIs can now vote in Indian elections without being here. Actually, they won't be able to do in the coming Delhi assembly polls but it's going to start soon.

Source

But, during the radio podcast, the RJ asked listeners to call him and tell him about their views, and one of the replies is really sad.

She says NRIs should not be able to vote from out of India because they left the country. She even went so far as to say "Mahatma Gandhi worked so hard for the freedom of our country, and he did it not so we could run off to different countries to earn more money. The NRIs obviously think India is not good and left the country to earn more money and so, they should not be given rights to vote for the country. They can just vote for the country they're living in."

Well, here's the thing. I don't think she understands what NRI actually is. NRI stands for Non-resident Indian. NRIs are basically Indian citizens who are TEMPORARILY living in a different country for reasons like education, work etc.

She's mixed NRIs and PIOs (Person of Indian Origin, read NRI and PIO for more information)

NRIs haven't left the country because they think it's bad, they've just left the country for education (makes sense, our education system is highly depressing) or work (they could have been transferred by their company, it's not all money based) or whatever reason, it's temporary.

And if you check the requirements for voting, they are:
1) The person must be of 18 years of age at least.
2) The person must be a citizen of India.

And so, NRIs do qualify for voting. The only reason they can't vote is because they can't show up in India for voting.

I don't think it's a good idea either but not because of that stupid reason. It's just that the voting will be done through the internet (using proxies) and that's a little insecure in my opinion.

However, there are rumours and suspicions that the ballot elections are tampered so, there really won't be much of a difference.

Also, in my opinion, NRIs are a bit more logical than the average Indian citizen and their votes might actually improve the country. Besides, like I said, NRIs should technically be able to vote already.

Whoever said this on radio should really do their research before saying something as heavy as this.

And one really funny fact about this woman is that she just moved to Pune from the North. So technically, she's also moving to different locations for money (according to her logic) so, she really has no right to judge NRIs.