BJP woos NRIs ahead of Lok Sabha polls

Reaching out to overseas Indians, BJP President Rajnath Singh on Monday promised that his party would create conditions to facilitate FDI by NRIs in the country if it comes to power in the upcoming general elections.

Addressing an event organised by the Overseas Friends of BJP on the eve of the Pravasiya Bhartiya Diwas in New Delhi, Singh said that Indian diaspora was the second largest in the world after the Chinese but its contribution to FDI was a modest 10 to 15 per cent.

"You should cooperate in the formation of a BJP government and we will create conditions that your contribution to the FDI in the country will go up to 35-40 per cent," Singh said.

Singh said that his party after coming to power would boost the manufacturing sector and could float bonds which would allow NRIs to invest in this sector. He said that NRIs had heavily invested in the Resurgent India Bonds which had been floated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government after the Pokharan nuclear tests in 1998.

One of the problems that NRI faced was that that it was not always easy for them to travel back to India with families to vote. "We feel that NRIs should also be allowed to cast their votes in the embassies abroad," Singh said. He also urged the US government to have a relook at the Border Security Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 as the visa fees had increased and Indian engineers were facing problems.

Singh said that there should be a system under which NRIs should be able to get their children admitted to IITs and other institution of excellence in the country. The BJP president slammed the Congress-led UPA government saying it had brought the credibility of India down in the eyes of the world.

He said BJP had leaders with firm conviction and Gujarat had become a model state for development under Narendra Modi, party's Prime Ministerial candidate. Refrring to the recent assembly polls in which Congress lost in four out of five states, Singh claimed BJP will get a "clear majority" in the Lok Sabha elections.

Among those who attended the event were Mahendra Chaudhary, former Prime Minister of Fiji, and England based Lord Rajinder Paul Loomba.