Orange passports: Cong says move discriminatory

New Delhi: The Congress today hit out at the Modi government over its decision that passport holders requiring emigration check would be given an orange-coloured passport, saying the BJP was “obsessed” with orange and the move “screamed of discrimination”.

The Congress put out a video on its Twitter handle, saying the move could encourage “classism” against migrant workers. The video shows the BJP’s top leadership and workers staging protests, besides the RSS workers taking out a march past wearing orange/saffron-coloured clothes/bandanas/flags.

“A passport of a different colour for a certain class of Indians is an invitation for discrimination. #OrangeIsTheNewBlue,” the Congress tweet said. The video also stated that, “We know the BJP is obsessed with the colour orange…the newest target is our passport, that could change from blue to orange.” 

“This move screams discrimination and could encourage classism against migrant workers…Could this be India’s new caste system? Orange is the new Blue,” the video says. Congress president Rahul Gandhi yesterday attacked the Modi government over its decision that passport holders requiring emigration check would be given an orange-coloured passport while others will continue to get a blue one, saying it shows the BJP’s “discriminatory mindset”.

He also said the move was unacceptable and shows that the government was treating India’s migrant workers as “second class citizens”. The passport holders with ECR (Emigration Check Required) status would be issued a passport with orange passport jacket and those with non-ECR status would continue to get a blue passport, an MEA statement had said last week.

ECR is mostly required for less skilled workers. “Treating India’s migrant workers like second class citizens is completely unacceptable. This action demonstrates BJP’s discriminatory mindset,” the Congress president had tweeted yesterday. Till now, all Indian citizens were given blue-coloured passports, with the exception of diplomatic and official passports which have red and white covers respectively.