PANAJI
Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai announced that he would table a private member's resolution in the upcoming Budget session of the Legislative Assembly seeking dual nationality.
“A part of Goa’s distinct identity is that the Portuguese government gave that right to (Goans) to take Portuguese passports, and the Indian government has accepted it. I will move a private member’s resolution that the Government of India should grant dual citizenship because by having a Portuguese passport, one doesn’t become anti-national,” he said while addressing the crowd at Azad Maidan.
Congress MLA, Advocate Carlos Ferreira, who also came to support the movement, explained various legal aspects while maintaining that acquiring foreign citizenship does not disentitle a person or divest the person from holding property already held.
“The fact that someone acquires foreign citizenship doesn’t disentitle the person or divest him/her from holding property already held, whether agriculture or orchard or other. Even a foreign national can acquire property by succession,” the former Advocate General said, adding, “The bar to foreigners to acquire orchard or agricultural land is only inter vivos.”
The Opposition, led by Sardesai and Ferreira, has decided to table a resolution in the Assembly.
The GFP President added that the Union government has not explicitly denied the provision of dual citizenship, rather they asserted that the matter is under consideration. “Possessing a Portuguese passport should not make a person anti-national because it has been acquired within the law. There is no disgrace in obtaining a Portuguese passport…We have a history to that,” he explained.
Former IAS OFficer and current Congress leader Elvis Gomes extended his support while slamming the government for an abrupt circular in November 2022.
Lawyer-activist Aires Rodrigues, who recently opted for Portuguese citizenship, stated that resolving the primary issue related to dual nationality would automatically give clarity on other issues linked to it. “Dual nationality has been pending for quite some time. The Government of India should expedite the matter given that there’s a demand for dual nationality right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. The government in the past has promised to fulfil this. There is no reason the matter should be further delayed,” he said.
