London, June 16: The Dual Citizenship Bill currently before the standing committee of parliament will become a law by the end of this year, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani said here last night. Replying to a largely-attended reception in his honour hosted by the Indian High Commissioner Ronen Sen at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre here, Advani said he had the privilege to pilot the bill in the Lok Sabha.

"It has been referred to the standing committee. After 2 to three months, it will come back to Parliament and before this year end the bill will become law," he said.

The reception was attended among others by Lord Swaraj Paul, ambassador for overseas British business, Lord Navnit Dholakia, president of the liberal democrats, Piara Singh Khabra, Lord King and film producer Shekhar Kapur.
Referring to his week-long visit to the US at the invitation of American Vice President Dick Cheney, Advani said during his visit to Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, he met a large number of NRIs and found that the NRIs were concerned about progress and developments in India.
He said that there was vast potential for India`s growth but what was lacking was a "proper work culture."

Prior to independence, he said politics was not a profession. "It was a mission. People like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Lokmanya Tilak gave up lucrative practices to join the freedom movement.

Bureau Report