Update on NRI voting Rights bill

The bill was called as "Representation of People's Act amendment 2010" and was passed as in Lok Sabha on August 31st 2010. Most MPs did not even know that it was passed and it was done in the last hours of the last  day in parliament with no further discussions after Rajyasabha. Media houses also did not come to know about this. The bill allows people to register to vote if they are not staying at home and working in foreign country. This bill leaves us now with two options.

• Bill did not deny absentee voting rights at least explicitly. It is up to election commission on how to implement this now. We have to approach election commission on whether they implement it and how they implement it.
• Bill does not provide absentee voting rights. All the people who are given absentee voting rights are explicitly mentioned in the "Representation of People's Act". We have to get support from some members of Parliament to introduce new bill to support absentee voting rights for NRIs.

We have diplomatic, judicial and legal options left and we should not give up until absentee voting rights are provided for all NRIs.