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PM Modi assures Sikh MP from New Zealand over starting direct flight between two nations

| @indiablooms | Jan 23, 2019, at 05:11 pm

Varanasi, Jan 23 (IBNS): Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured  the first Indian to be nominated to New Zealand Parliament Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi  that  a direct flight between New Zealand and India will be started.

Speaking to The Tribune, the four-term MP based in Manukau East said soon after PM Modi’s inaugural speech asking every Pravasi Indian to convince at least five non-Indians living in their country to visit India to promote tourism, he walked up to the PM to point out that there was no direct flight between the two countries.

“PM Modi nodded promising to look into this,” Bakshi told the newspaper.

He has reportedly handed over a wish list to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

The list includes demands like granting dual citizenship and representation for Pravasi Indians in the Rajya Sabha, reports said.

“As politics ran in my blood I became active over there soon after my arrival in 2001. I started lobbying for representation for Indians and was first offered a seat in Parliament the very next year in 2002, but I refused as I felt too new to represent the country. In 2005, I was first nominated and since then have been re-nominated four times,” said Bakshi.

Image: Raveesh Kumar Twitter page    

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