DNA Edit: Leave the passport alone

‘Why fix something that ain’t broken?’ is a popular American phrase that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) hasn’t heard of. In case they have, the import of the idiom eludes them because why else would they put out poorly-thought out ‘brainwaves’ only to retract it weeks later. No amount of soft diplomacy can possibly save the government from the embarrassment ensuing from this botched episode. The MEA on January 12 had proposed two ideas: First was to refrain from printing the last page of the passport with the personal details of the individual. Second, was to have orange-coloured passports for citizens requiring emigration checks (ECR), while keeping a blue-jacket passport for those belonging to the emigration checks not required (ECNR) category.

Now, the MEA, in a complete turnaround of its earlier decision has decided to keep the last page of the passport while doing away with the idea of introducing an orange passport. Millions of Indians across India proffer the passport as their identification. In order to secure a passport, the police put the applicant through a thorough process of verification, which makes it one of the most reliable documents for self-identification. Eliminating it as an identifier makes little sense unlike the decision to introduce a passport with an orange-jacket, a move that has a laudable goal underlying it — to fortify hapless labourers against exploitation when they travel overseas — but an amateurish policy design.

Currently, emigration check is mandatory for passport-holders who wish to migrate overseas for employment, but do not hold a matriculation certificate and their earnings are far below the income tax liability. By marking out the passports of these citizens in orange, the ministry was effectively making migrant labourers and those from the underprivileged class all the more conspicuous, and consequently open to exploitation. In any case, the scheme has brazen overtones of violation of Fundamental Right to privacy. Even before the first orange passport would have seen the light of the day, the scheme and its constitutional validity would have been, in all likelihood, quashed by the courts.

A day after the Kerala High Court issued a notice to the Central government seeking a reply from it on a PIL challenging the scheme, the MEA saved itself a lot of trouble by retracting the decision. The government must be given some credit for withdrawing the decision before it blew up in its face.  It is obvious that the decision would have unsettled the basic premise of the Constitution, namely, Equality. The MEA must take a hard, unflinching look at the exploitation Indian labourers face in Europe as well as the Middle East. As per Human Rights Watch, Indian workers in UAE face inhuman working conditions; are forced to live in pitiable conditions; have their salaries gratuitously cut while living with restrictions on personal mobility. Perhaps, the MEA would be better off taking a closer look at their predicament.