Whither Our Indian Citizenship? 

By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD 

With its most recent announcement that the holding of an Indian Passport cannot be considered as proof of our Indian Citizenship, our Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has created a legal paradox, which may soon snowball into a situation akin to the opening of the proverbial Pandora’s Box.  

Hitherto, the possession of this presumably most important and even prestigious pocketable document, was considered to be the most irrefutable proof of our Indian citizenship. And, rightly so too, because a passport is issued by the Indian Government, in the name of the President of India and it allows you to travel across the world unhindered, as a citizen of India and return to the country as one. 

It has a special importance and status because it always was and still is issued only after the most rigorous background checks that not only ascertain whether the applicant is a bonafide Indian citizen or not and additionally, only after making sure that he or she does not have a criminal background due to which the person is likely to flee from the country to avoid prosecution. 

It is a different matter that a good many of our fellow countrymen, accused of some massive wrongdoings, have managed to not only acquire passports but also hold on to them and use them to leave the country, evading the long arm of the law. And, most surprisingly, they continue to remain in their overseas havens of their choice, years after their passports have been revoked by our government.  

According to The Citizenship Act, 1955, anyone born in our country between 26th, January 1950 and 1st, July, 1987 is automatically eligible to be called an Indian citizen. It goes a little further to say that children born after certain specified dates to any one parent who happens to be an Indian citizen, can lay claim to Indian citizenship.  

Further, the children born to Indian citizens outside India after 3rd December, 2004 too can claim citizenship status provided that their births are notified to the nearest Indian consulate within a period of one year. 

The MEA’s latest announcement that a passport cannot be considered as proof of our citizenship comes on 24th June, 2026 in coincidence with the National Passport Seva Divas, observed to commemorate the enactment of the The Passports Act, 1967. 

In response to the ensuing murmurs of amazement if not outrage from across the country, the government has quickly clarified that since on rare occasions, under some very special circumstances, an Indian passport can be issued even to non-Indian citizens, it cannot be considered as a document that affirms or confirms any individual holding an Indian passport as being an Indian citizen.  

So that clarification brings to an end the story about the relationship between our passport and our citizenship and there is no way we can reconnect the two now.  

Here comes the important question about which of our many personal documents attests to our status as citizens of our country? The Aadhaar card, with its twelve-digit Unique Identity Number, which was introduced a decade ago and which was praised as the ultimate proof of one’s personal identity for all purposes, because it had two of our most important biometric parameters embedded in it. But it came with the rider clearly written on it that it was only an identity document and it had nothing to do with indicating the holder’s citizenship status. So, it naturally fails to help us if we use it to prove our citizenship.  

And, rightly so too, because anyone residing within our country for whatever purpose, for a total of more than 182 days, in the twelve months preceding the application date, is eligible to acquire one, irrespective of whether he or she is an Indian citizen or not. 

Then came the much-hyped Election Identity Card with its sacred EPIC number, which was meant to wipe out the all too rampant practice of proxy voting and the casting of votes in multiple booths, by one person. 

Thus ended the inglorious era of the use of some very clever chemistry that had very effectively defeated the claim to permanence, of our indelible ink, that was and still is manufactured only here in Namma Mysuru and dispatched to every tiny nook and corner of our country. There was a time when on polling day, there were experts fielded by every political party and stationed around the corner of every polling booth, who in a jiffy could wipe the ink off your fingernail, making you eligible to cast any number of votes on behalf of any number of different people, to the candidate of your choice.  

And, for a pretty long time, this tiny and rather drab Election Identity Card, on which your photo makes you look like anyone but you, naturally ruled the roost as proof of your Indian citizenship, as only Indian citizens are eligible to cast votes at our elections.  

This was the card on the basis of which we all voted and on the basis of which all our candidates, good, bad and ugly, filed their nominations, to either rule or loot us! But now all this is set to change and understandably so again, because a good many of non-Indian citizens are believed to be in possession of Election Identity Cards and they are casting votes at our elections, which they are clearly not eligible to do.  

This is the situation that has now brought us to the era of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Election Identity Cards which is in progress right now.  

This exercise like many others of its kind, has now become the subject of much controversy, but whether it is going to succeed in its mission to do good to us and our country in the years to come, is to be seen, only in the years to come.  

Considering the many pitfalls about our identity which we have not been able to set right over all these 78 years of our nationhood, it is time we had a watertight and rock-solid proof of our citizenship, on a handy and hardy card that we can all proudly carry in our pockets as legitimate Indian citizens.  

We should now put and end to this harrowing business of subjecting our citizens to the recurrent hardship of standing in endless queues or filling multiple forms or answering multiple questions, before multiple teams of enumerators, every few years.  

As a developed country we need to develop a foolproof way of getting rid of this harrowing identity crisis. Do think about it!  

e-mail: kjnmysore@rediffmail.com