Brides in distress

I read The Tribune report, “Punjab home to 30,000 deserted NRI brides” (Feb 16). The figure of deserted NRI brides is alarming and warrants stricter laws. In fact, the better life concept is attracting the girls to settle abroad without caring for the consequences.

Moreover, most NRIs on visit to India marry girls for two to three months and then leave with an assurance to return but don’t keep the promise. In most cases, marriages are performed with the sole intention to grab money with a promise of settling the bride in a foreign country. This practice needs to be curbed as the marital dispute cases are increasing in the courts. In certain cases, the victim is a child.

There should be a separate law to cover NRI affairs, particularly matrimonial disputes. Some strategies to empower women to meet the negative social impacts which are flowing from the globalisation process will have to be formulated. The specific mention of marital status in the passport, besides mandatory registration of marriage in India, will help check the NRIs’ ways.

It would be more appropriate if the “Married” stamp with the country’s name is affixed by the Registrar of Marriages on the passport so that no person could go in for a second marriage in case of a dispute.

More important, no marriage should be registered without getting an unmarried certificate from an NRI bridegroom issued by the government where he is settled and verified by the Indian Embassy. Intimation to the foreign government of NRI will be another step to curb the tendency of those who are acting with intent to deceive. The aspirant’s parents should also take the help of private detective agencies for knowing the financial and marital status of NRI grooms.

The National Commission for Women should also play a pro-active role in checking fraudulent NRI marriages.

HARISH K. MONGA, Ferozepur

PDP’s mischief

I read the editorial, “India can’t part with territory” (Feb 15). The power point presentation by Mehbooba Mufti of the PDP in Srinagar for her newly found vision on Kashmir ceding both Aksai Chin and the Karakoram region to China as opposed to India’s stance that these regions are part of India rightly echoes the voice of the country that she has created an avoidable controversy. This is not only harmful for India but also for her own political interests.

It is a mischievous calculated move by the PDP. Though it advocates self-rule for Jammu and Kashmir, it is playing into the hands of China and Pakistan to accept China’s right over Aksai Chin and the Karakoram region showing it in red and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in green on a map super-imposed on a collage of foreign currency notes.

Has the PDP forgotten the 1994 resolution of Parliament passed unanimously? It clearly voiced the concern of Indian Parliament and the people on Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and reiterated that the state was an inseparable part of the country. However, it is puzzling that the PDP, when out of power in the state, becomes a devil’s workshop creating unnecessary controversies full of anti-India mentality as depicted by the  Kashmir map.

Mehbooba’s observation is highly objectionable. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah aptly said that “this is not acceptable to us” and any Indian who has the country’s interests dear to him or her will have a similar opinion.

The editorial rightly concludes that anyone who indulges in an act that weakens the country’s national interests deserves to be condemned severely. The PDP leader has done a great disservice to the nation. Those who demand her party’s de-recognition on the question have a valid point.

Mehbooba should know how to conduct herself while handling national issues. That she has a soft corner for the separatists in Kashmir is known to one and all. It would be a sad development if she, too, starts behaving as these anti-India elements do.

DILBAG RAI, Chandigarh