1.6m Indians renounced citizenship since 2011: Govt

A total of 1,83,741 Indians have renounced their citizenship this year, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan told this at the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Responding to a question from Congress lawmaker Abdul Khaleque, he, however, told the house that with this, more than 1.6 million Indians have renounced their citizenship since 2011.

Giving details, Muraleedharan said that 1,31,489 people gave up their Indian citizenship in 2015, 1,41,603 in 2016, 1,33,049 in 2017, 1,34,561 in 2018, 1,44,017 in 2019, 85,256 in 2020, 1,63,370 in 2021, and 1,83,741 till October 31 this year.

For reference purposes, he said, the figure was 1,22,819 for 2011,1,20,923 for 2012,1,31,405 for 2013 and 1,29,328 for 2014.

According to data provided by the minister, the total number of Indians who have given up their Indian citizenship since 2011 adds up to 1.6 million people.

To Khaleque's request for an estimate of the wealth taken away from India by those who renounced their citizenship, Muraleedharan said the external affairs ministry does not maintain the data.

He, however, added that the number of foreign nationals, except citizens of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who had taken Indian citizenship, was 93 in 2015, 153 in 2016, 175 in 2017, 129 in 2018, 113 in 2019, 27 in 2020, 42 in 2021, and 60 in 2022.

In a written response to a separate question from BJP lawmaker Rahul Kaswan, Muraleedharan said a total of 8,441 Indians are currently in foreign jails, including undertrials.

Out of this figure, 4,389 are being held in jails in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.