Indian minister warns of divisions within diaspora

Expressing concern over the functioning of diaspora organisations, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh on Monday said he feels communities are getting divided and a “game of one-upmanship” is going on.

“I don’t mind personal aspirations, personal ambition, but communities are getting further divided.

“I thought it was only here that if you step out of your house people ask you what caste you are, if you step out of your village people ask you what language you speak, and you are only Indians when you went abroad. But I think there also we have too many conflicting organisations,” Singh said.

“I get a feeling that there is a game of one-upmanship. I think we need to look at it very seriously.,” he said at a session on “Diaspora Organisations: Bridging distances, unlocking opportunities” on the final day of the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas convention here.

Noting that there are 5,000 organisations, he said there is no problem so far as they were going in the same direction.

Community welfare should be the prime responsibility and playing politics with each other is the “lowest possible work that we have”, Singh said.

“We do find that there are issues. My humble request is please combine with each other and get the maximum,” he said.

Stressing on the importance of synergy between the missions and the diaspora or community organisations, Singh said, they should play a role in ensuring good relationship between the country they reside or work in and the mother country.

“It also means that whatever you do, you should be working within the ambit of laws and rules of that country,” he said, adding, a few organisations are not working as effectively as they should be.

Asserting that there is a need to be very clear on what diaspora organisations were supposed to do, Singh opined they are to work for the welfare of the community and to create conducive atmosphere for themselves.

source: GULF NEWS