Diaspora: NRIs Stay Away from Panjab Polls

Non-resident Indians (NRIs) — who used to book tickets en masse for Panjab and backed candidates through several elections in past decades — are staying away from campaigning for parliamentary elections. Even though, to woo NRIs, travel agents are offering discounts on air fares, administration is focussing on them. Many NRIs say they are disillusioned over not much having been done to safeguard their interests — mainly safety of landholdings and properties back home in Panjab. Successive govts. have tried to win over the NRIs by holding NRI Sammelans (Meets), but these have failed to win their confidence as actual problems still exist. NRIs who hail from Panjab took interest in 2012 assembly elections when then SAD CM Parkash Singh Badal’s estranged nephew Manpreet Badal had formed the People’s Party of Punjab. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, many NRIs made a beeline to support the AAP and established its units in Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. These units, apart from providing physical and moral support, also provided financial support. In the 2017 assembly polls, NRIs had taken interest, but after that their interest started waning. Glendale, US-based Karmjit Singh Dhaliwal said, ‘We had campaigned for AAP in 2014 and 2017 but supported the INC in 2019. Now we feel, all are the same when it comes to solving issues of NRIs. Panjab is plagued by extortions and youth dying of rampant drug addiction. These views have been echoed by hundreds of NRIs in WhatsApp groups, other channels and their occasional meetings at Gurdwaras [Sikh place of learning and worship] on Sundays.’