In a devilishly clever move to shore up the plunging value of Indian citizenship, GoI has quietly let loose a pigeon among the cats. Last Wednesday, in a gathering of people you only encounter when you have to renew your passport to get your Aadhaar card details changed so that you can get a new gas connection, the ministry of external affairs - whose job is to track affairs Indians may be carrying out with other nationals, despite being married to the country that's saare jahan se achha - deployed one of their operatives to slip out the fact that an Indian passport is not proof of Indian citizenship.
Now, many bona fide passport-holders have gone bonkers about the matter-of-fact fact being let out. Suddenly, they find their Indian citizenship, which they never really thought twice about, to be as solid as a NEET exam paper. But they miss the sheer genius in the MEA strategy. After all, would you rather be a member of a club that desperately wants you? Or do you hanker for membership of one like, say, Delhi Gymkhana Club, that blathers on about its value of being 'No ayahs, no drivers near the pool area' snooty and exclusive?
