The brain power incubated in the plush laboratories of Silicon Valley coagulates as a mighty force to unleash its potential to change the visage of India, or so it seems. And Mr Modi was just nibbling at the idea. Back home however, the reality is stark. Digital India sounds good to power the mind, but perhaps this is an idea whose time may not have come yet, in harsh reality. The many Indian CEOs, who seemed to be eating out of the PM’s hand in their cerebral interactions, could change the landscape of India if circumstances suitably evolve to welcome them home and ease their efforts to invest in the digital sector of India.

Today even the poorest of the poor, in some God forsaken interior, sports a mobile telephone to keep himself connected. Connected with what, one will be tempted to ask. While bandwidth connectivity is a virtuous factoid of modern day society, connectivity among people themselves, better still between those who govern and those who are governed is of even more salience.

When the leadership goes out to connect hearts and minds overseas to bring them back for the country’s development, it is equally important to ensure that the country is not racked asunder in the name of obscure irredentism of the medieval age. For example, food habits which are totally part of the personal domain of the citizen should not fall under the state’s dictat. Digital India is a modern concept and to foster in a milieu of modernity it presages understanding and goodwill among the umpteen groups and communities that dot the land. The dots need to be connected to make the picture perfect.

I remember when I had joined the fledgling Ministry of Overseas Affairs as a Joint Secretary to formulate policies for the Diaspora, it was an uphill task to even quantify the numbers, spread as they were, and still are, all over the globe, leading to the flattering epithet, “the sun never sets upon the Indian Diaspora”. Times have changed since. Today the Diaspora is unabashedly wooed, welcomed with open arms to come to their motherland with finance, technology and ideas. Back home, it is a different story however. I know of one NRI from California who has been shouting hoarse in his home state of Odisha for government intervention and support for his project for the promotion of ayurveda with proper instrumentation which he has brought in, as part of his own technology transfer from the land of his success to the land where his story began. Alas, he has no takers. And that, mind you, is the correct way to project ayurveda overseas, that which fits squarely with GOI’s policy.

Does this not jar in popular imagination? Is it not a contradictory narrative of aspirations melting away in sordid reality? Of course, civilizational India stands heads and shoulders over very many countries in the world today, but that glorious heritage has to be preserved at any cost, of maintaining the oneness of the diverse land that we have proudly inherited. What does an overseas Indian stand tall for, while jostling for space in the congregation of peoples and interests? Granted his own worth, the habits that cloak his integrity, but at a different level for the essence of the undying, perpetually renewing civilization of which he is an integral part, unity in diversity.

This letter is particularly meant for all those overseas Indians who would have gathered thousands of miles away from their motherland, in the balmy environs of LA with their stellar achievements, each one a success story of which mother India is truly proud. But then the need for immediate course correction in social behavior among all religious and ethnic groups must not be lost sight of. Equally important, the essentiality of actually transforming the entire process of inviting NRIs for investment in India at the level of implementation should be taken seriously. Otherwise the inspirational words uttered by the Indian PM in the SAP Auditorium of San Jose will dissolve in an unfortunate void. Until Air India one touches some distant land some other time again to fete and pamper India’s overseas community.

Malay Mishra