The Curious Predicament of Imran Khan

Even if all the suspicions about the SIR list being manipulated are true, the one person who would not be affected by it is Imran Khan. Simply because he can't vote. And, yet, the actor, once upon a time an A list star, is now doing the rounds of courts to prevent himself from being deported because of alleged participation in the agitation for Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. He is a US citizen residing in India and in his predicament you come face to face with the idea of a citizen in a modern world.

The law does not really need to clear this doubt. A citizen is one who holds citizenship, overwhelmingly those born here. They get to choose who should govern them. In every country, citizens have more rights than non-citizens. Much of the world has however recognised that citizenship does not have to be monogamy. More than 100 countries offer some form of dual citizenship. India is not in that list. Ergo, you have foreign citizens settled in India who think of themselves as Indians. Then you have foreign citizens abroad, who take more interest in Indian politics than they do in their own country, people of Indian origin who are vocal and canvass online when India goes to the polls. If India offered dual citizenship none of these anomalies need exist.

You could argue if Khan genuinely feels a stake in India, renouncing US citizenship should have been the principled stand. That decision however comes with costs. Life is better in the first world and, even if you feel for India, it is always good to have a retirement plan in a country where advanced healthcare is accessible and people obey traffic lights.

Khan stumbled in not weighing the risks that non-citizenship opens him up to. India is not a country where you enter into politics without being ready to experience blood on the battlefield. It is a rite of passage if you are a serious player in the game. He might not want anything to do with active politics, but a film star, even one past his prime, is considered fair game because he has face value.