NEW DELHI: There are thousands of talented NRIs/PIOs who would like to come back and contribute to the success of their motherland. But in spite of the declared intentions of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and high officials to welcome them though the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas and other avenues, the government of India and its organs are actually creating hurdles to their return. One case in point is Cerritos based Dr Arun Jain who returned to India after more than 18 years in the US.

Dr Jain is a senior Ophthalmologist and Plastic Surgeon educated and trained from top schools like Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles. He has published research articles, lectured senior surgeons and assumed leadership roles in major health organizations like Kaiser Permanente of USA. For almost two years he lived on in India with his family in an attempt to gain recognition from the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Since all his efforts failed, Dr Jain decided to return to the US. In an e-mailed account sent to India Post, Dr Jain says, "I returned to India three years ago with a passion and desire to give back to the motherland and at the same time, build a career, by providing state of the art eye care and disseminating my knowledge acquired abroad.

However, the Medical Council of India which is acting under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare denied me any opportunity to realize this dream. "They refused to grant me permission initially to appear for a screening exam, which is a requirement for foreign medical graduates like me to practice medicine in India. After a year long struggle with bureaucrats, when I finally did take the exam, they have now refused to release my results."

What could be the reason for this denial of opportunity? Are they jealous of the success of their brethren abroad? Do they fear their own professions will be hit? In his account, Dr Jain says, "They have denied my application based on my US citizenship. Even though I now hold dual citizenship in the form of Overseas Citizenship of India, which gives foreign nationals like me equal rights as Indian citizens in every aspect except political spheres, they have denied me this right.

 "While foreign institutions can invest crores of rupees to buy Indian assets and companies, a foreign national who is essentially Indian by virtue of his birth and upbringing (I spent the first 18 years of my life in India), is denied a simple and fundamental right. Can a license to practice medicine in India by a Person of Indian Origin be more threatening to India’s sovereignty than multi-nationals buying and competing with Indian companies, when on the contrary I bring valuable skills to serve the needy? "How do you justify the rhetoric of public officials in the highest echelons of the government, that they are welcoming NRIs with open arms? What is the sense of creating a dual citizenship scheme that officials in different ministries cannot practice in principle," Dr Jain asks.

Dr Jain wrote to the Prime Minister three years back explaining his predicament and sent copies of this letter to the then President DR APJ Abdul Kalam, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss and the then External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh. To his chagrin, he has not received any written acknowledgement from any one of them. The issue remains unresolved with no one willing to take action.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Jain sought to bring to his attention the Government of India policies that are "turning away probably hundreds of highly talented doctors and surgeons from serving their motherland." Explaining the objections being raised in his case, Dr Jain said in the letter, "The Health Ministry (MHFW) is stalemated on simple terms/definitions of "Non Resident Indians (NRIs)" vs. "Indian Citizens" vs. "People of Indian Origin (PIOs)." Some MHFW officials are creating roadblocks by claiming that the term "NRIs" automatically means he/she is not an Indian citizen.

They are contravening the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) who has given the same educational/financial rights to PIO cardholders as to Indian Citizens." The letter said, "The MHFW has recently barred me from appearing in the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), a Screening Test for doctors conducted by them on March 13 (2005). Without this test, doctors of Indian origin like me cannot practice medicine in India."

It said, "My case is not alone - two of my acquaintances in American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPIO), USA, recently complained of the same problem; in addition, a Government official in Medical Council of India (MCI) said there were 42 similar cases that were rejected recently on the same basis!" Dr Jain says, "All along my career, I have fervently dreamt of setting up a clinic for advanced plastic and ophthalmic surgery in India that would serve the millions of needy in our country at a much reduced cost by using the capital generated from similar surgeries on patients brought to India from overseas."

Dr Jain was born in Delhi and emigrated to the US with his family at age 18. He graduated from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi in 1985 and even completed one year of M.B.B.S. at the University College of Medical Sciences before leaving. His parents, he says, had even planned for his future return as they still have an apartment in his name in Rohini, New Delhi. Dr Jain’s letter to the PM says, "I have sacrificed greatly to come to India after such a long time. I have resigned from my job in US, uprooted my children’s schooling, and have resided in India for the past three months without any employment, to prepare for this exam.

At present, I have no income and I cannot subject my family to unnecessary burden for long. If this issue is unresolved within the next month, I will have no option but to return to the US with an unfulfilled dream and a sense of betrayal." Strangely, Dr Jain says, medical graduates from even tiny universities in countries like Bangladesh and Nepal are not required to take this exam and "can practice in India without any formality that I have been subjected to! This is due to the principle of Reciprocity followed by the Govt. of India."

He adds, "Reciprocity principles were probably designed to show the world the self-esteem of India and/or as mild retaliatory measures. They were not intended to hurt our own nation or our own people." Dr Jain says such a principle actually underscores our (India’s) weakness – "first, countries like US come up with some regulations (for their own needs); then India follows suit like a trailing country. In reality, we should look into what our needs are and then come up with regulations to protect against those problems."